Harry Potter and the Age of Magic
by Faykan
Summary: The 3rd age has long ended, its history transforming into legend and myth, but because evil was defeated once does not mean that it was ended forever. In the distant future a light springs forth out of darkness, and one of the same beings sent to guide Arda to peace have come again, to prepare the way for evil's downfall, and support those chosen of the Valar in this new war.
1. Y1-Prologue: Enter the Third

_By Popular Vote, I will compile all seven of the 'A New Player' series books into one new compilation, remastering and tailoring the old story to what I hope to call my more sophisticated style of writing after ~6 years of doing fanfiction... My it hasn't felt like that long..._

 _I have no real plan on a set schedule on posting this one, as it is not a priority like Stormreaver or Rise of Darth Veneficus, but as the entire story is written, just awaiting editing, don't fear that this will be put on the back burner. It takes a bit of doing, but its not impossible for my to edit these chapters, depending on how bad I felt about the one in particular, so it will be at least 2-3 times a month at the lowest._

 _Regardless, here is the Prologue, and what I think I want to do is briefly, at the end of each chapter, go over what changes I made and why I felt they were needed._ ** _*If you are new to the story, I strongly recommend skipping the commentary at the end until you either go back and read the whole of the original or this project is finished, as it may or may not contain minor spoilers.*_**

 _Without further delay, I wish to present the newly redesigned Prologue... enjoy... ~F_

 **Harry Potter and the Age of Magic**

 **Year 1: A New Player**

 **Prologue:**

 **Enter the Third**

Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, October 31, 1981

A light breeze rippled through the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which had previously lain silent and tidy under an inky black sky. It whispered down the road until reaching a man whose name was Albus Dumbledore. This man, a powerful wizard, gazed out at the rows of terribly nondescript buildings through world-weary eyes. The wind slightly tossed his silvery hair and beard, and blew the purple cloak he wore around his tall and robed frame, and Albus pulled his clothing tighter around him to prevent the chill as he strode down the street in great strides. The wizard stopped on the corner and glanced back at the house labeled number four, where he could just barely see the small bundle of blankets he had deposited on the front step of the house moments ago.

Little infant Harry Potter had suffered so much already, and Albus was dooming him to another ten years of misery, this he knew from the moment Hagrid had brought the lab to him less than half an hour previous. But some sacrifices had had to be made, to ensure the boy's safety from those who had already orphaned and attempted to murder him. in truth, it was nothing short of a miracle that little Harry had survived at all, and even Albus' ingenious mind was hard pressed to understand just how such a thing had occurred.

Even as an infant, the youngest Potter had great magical potential, and with time he would probably reach heights of magical power that even Albus couldn't dream of, but at this moment, with him being sent to live with his only living family left, who lacked the skills to care for a wizard so bright and powerful, he was forced to seal off a great portion of the boy's magic, solely for his own safety. In time, when Harry was old enough to handle his power maturely and with the care required, Albus would loosen the spell, but that was not for many years yet to come.

Raising his wand, he intoned the incantation to an ancient ritual spell, chiefly referred to as blood wards. The boy's mother, dear, sweet, brilliant Lily Potter had set the foundation of the powerful countercharm against the evil that would seek out her son to harm him, sealing it with her own death. It was only proper, and indeed Albus felt it his duty to his fallen friends, to see the charm completed, and thereby protecting Harry in the most powerful Light wards possible.

That ward, now channeled through the small letter with baby Harry, would activate fully the moment Petunia Dursley held the rough parchment in her hands to read it, and she would be compelled, by her own grief for her sister naturally, and aided by only the smallest amount of magic, to take Harry in. It was a pity that such compulsion, however small, was needed, but poor Petunia was not the most forgiving woman Albus had known, even if it was only by letter. The vendetta against all things magic ran deep, ever since she was denied going to Hogwarts herself when she and Lily had turned eleven.

But that was then, and the present was now. What must be done must be. ' _For the Greater Good_ , _Albus_ ,' sounded the voice of Gellert Grindlewald in the aged wizard's mind. How he mourned that saying, and its constant effects over the course of his life thereafter. Albus felt forever haunted by the memories of his former friend and long time foe. But, again, the past was long gone now, and he had pressing matters in the here and now to tend to.

The war with Voldemort may be finished, but his followers were as powerful as ever. With a flick of his wand, Albus did the last of his needed magic. Weaving a web of power over the infant so far away, Albus set a block of his own design upon the baby's magical power. While potentially detrimental in the long run for Harry, Albus felt that it was needed to prevent any wizarding people from locating the boy prematurely. He swore to himself that he would remove it, once the world was ready for Harry's full potential, and when Albus himself could devote the time to train Harry in the vast capabilities that his parentage afforded him; it was simply too much magic for a baby wizard growing up in the Muggle world to have, and Albus feared the worst if he allowed it to continue unhindered.

"Good luck, Harry Potter," Albus murmured to himself, when all was done. How he wished that he, or another from the wizarding world could take the boy in instead, but it was not meant to be. Between the necessity of the Blood Wards and those who would rend earth and sky in their attempts to take the boy under their control, and away from any who actually meant the child well, it was safer for him to just disappear into the night, and stay hidden away until he was old enough to have a say should someone try to take control of his life.

By then, Albus knew, he would be more than in position enough to counter any and all who sought to wrest Harry from his rightful place, but it was still too soon just now. There would be time for happiness for the young boy, but sadly it was not for a while yet. Sighing with mixed emotions, Albus then turned on his heel, and, with a swish of his cloak, vanished.

Appearing back in his office at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he looked about in muted sadness. It had been mere hours previous that the aged wizard was here, pouring over tomes and scrolls for any means of assisting in the war against Lord Voldemort, the most powerful dark sorcerer that had risen in many generations, when he felt and heard a powerful blast of magic, as well as the din of his many magical instruments flaring to life. These signs had all pointed to one thing; the Potter family had been attacked.

If not for the blasted prophecy, Albus mourned, the bright family could have been spared, but the Dark Lord's wrath at knowing their only son could potentially be his downfall drove him with a mad vengeance, aided by betrayal, to attempt to slaughter the entire Potter bloodline.

Both Lily and James had fallen, striving to defend their child, only for the Dark Wizard to fail to kill the boy himself. How this was so, even Albus did not know, but he suspected that it was brilliant Lily's doing, somehow causing the Killing Curse to rebound off the baby, leaving young Harry with only his soon-to-be famous scar, but obliterating the Dark Lord entirely.

Nevertheless, Albus felt no ease at Lord Voldemort's death, and he suspected that they had not seen the last of the Dark Wizard that nearly all else feared to even call by name. This was the reason he isolated the baby boy with his Muggle relatives, shrouded behind blood wards for his own safety. Not only the Dark Lord's followers would be after the boy, but all wizard-kind would clamor after his name. It was no life to live, surrounded by fame and adoration, especially if one was needed to rise up and fight the same evil that he was renowned for defeating once before.

No, Harry needed to grow up away from all that bad influence, safe and humble with his family, so that he could enter his world again and see immediately the wrongs that he alone could fix. Albus wished that there was another way, but he could not find one that could allow Harry as normal a life as possible. Voldemort had marked him as his foe, and there was little to nothing that Harry would be capable to do to stop the madman from pursuing him to one or the other's death.

Hopefully, with the aged Headmaster's guidance, young Harry Potter would not only survive that confrontation, but save the world in the process.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Had the aged wizard remained in the dingy Muggle neighborhood a few moments longer, Albus Dumbledore might have realized that he wasn't the only person left standing in the street. Another man, tall and wizened with age as much as Dumbledore, if not possibly more so, crept out of the shadows between the houses numbered Five and Six, and glanced around for any other signs of movement.

The man wore a robe of deep azure outlined with silver tassels and carried a large blackwood staff topped with an imposing sapphire in one gnarled hand. He shifted his grip on the staff slightly as he moved cautiously toward the doorstep of Number Four. As he arrived, he regarded the sleeping baby on the porch with his piercing blue eyes, partially screened by a mass of grey-black hair.

"Harry James Potter," the man said softly to the sleeping infant, "Dumbledore leaves you here for your safety, and safe you will be within these blood wards. But… at what terrible price, I wonder?" The ancient wizard glanced up at the unlit windows of Number Four in thought. Or more accurately, he stared past the building before him, his crystal gaze piercing cloud and sky to see far into a world that time had all but forgotten, and the wrinkled face seemed to smooth momentarily as he listened to something indiscernible to the slumbering infant.

Returning his attention to the infant and shaking his head sadly, the sorcerer stooped to softly stroke the sleeping babe's face. "I shall do whatever I can to keep you far safer, young one. Your destiny is great, but you will need all the help to be had if you hope to achieve it. The path Dumbledore sets you on alone only leads… to death…"

Tears filling his crystal blue eyes, the man spoke again, his voice changing to a light sing-song tone dramatically different to its previous deepness, " _Tincya haba coia a' sina hin ten'oio_."

Brilliant blue lights slowly emerged from his hand, while bold emerald lights wafted upward from the slumbering infant as the old man wove his spell-like song. The twin energies danced and swayed in the air before they merged into one, connecting the two into a bright golden radiance. The new power then encircled the little baby and the old man, and slowly faded into both people.

The mysterious wizard smiled warmly as the baby turned in his sleep, closing a tiny hand on the letter wrapped with him in the blankets. "Little Harry," the man said, slowly pulling his hand away from the baby boy, a look of pain on his face, "We must part for a time, but fear not, precious one, we will reunite very soon." Chuckling softly, the old man turned and walked away down the street and into the night.

"May the light of the _Valar_ guide your path, until we meet again, sweet child _Kentano_ ," the man intoned, standing roughly where Dumbledore had minutes ago. Suddenly, the blue clad wizard turned on his heel, vanishing with a little pop just as Dumbledore had; leaving the night as still as before the wizards had arrived.

If any passerby happened to listen carefully to the wind that night as it sailed across the island of Britain from the east, they would have heard a soft singsong voice repeatedly chanting, " _A_ _' i' quenat en' hin haba coia auta sil'_ ," over the night air.

 _Kentano : Potter_

 _tincya haba coia a' sina hin ten'oio : Join mine life to this child's forever._

 _a' i' quenat en' hin haba coia auta sil': to the body of a child my life go now._

 ** _Potential Spoilers ahead, you have been warned!_**

 _~F:_ _So, as I said, I will now comment on what changes were made, and why in my opinion... to be fair, I added A LOT to the prologue, as I had many reviewers from the original not fully understanding where I was going, who the characters were, and personally I didn't like the overwhelming shortness and almost narrator-like feel that the whole chapter gave, which clashed with the rest of the 7 stories' 3rd person perspective._

 _So I altered the beginning to be half Dumbledore's perspective, adding in more detail regarding who the characters were and what had occurred, just for the sake of argument that someone reading this had never seen Harry Potter before, and also because Albus was completely absent in perspective until halfway through book two, and I wanted to fix that, while the other half of the chapter retains a bit of the mystery of the overarching narrator feel, but now it stands out properly in the prologue instead of just feeling off throughout the whole of the chapter, which I believe draws more attention to it, which it ought to._

 _I clarified some of the Sindaren a touch, adding a bit more so that we can link the mysterious character to who he reappears as later on, as well as reemphasized that Albus was doing the best he could think of at the time. He is not a villain in this story, merely heavily misguided in his thoughts due to lack of challenge to them, and that was a plot point that I think fell rather flat, and it saddened me as that was one of the more interest things I felt while writing it._


	2. Y1-C1: Piter De Vries

_For such a small chapter, I didn't expect such a sizeable reaction to posting the Prologue, nearly 50 alerts for just over 500 words. I am impressed, to say the least, and so I was able to get the next chapter of AoM out far faster than I intended. Spring Break is a very excellent week to write in, when not boggled down with everything else I need to get done._

 _So, anyway, a request, if/when people review, if you'd please mention whether you prefer the 'behind the scenes' editorial at the end of the chapters or not, as I feel its something a bit on the special side, but if they are unwanted I can certainly not distract from the actual plot or spoil something for those who can't help but read them, even when they know they ought not to..._

 _In any regard, please enjoy the new edition of Chapter one... ~F_

 **Chapter One**

 **Piter De Vries**

Harry Potter had never counted his birthday as anything overly special, as his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never gave him anything worthwhile, not even acknowledgment that it even was his birthday, and his cousin Dudley only used it as an extra excuse to beat him up with the help of his friends.

This particular day, his eighth birthday, Harry felt lucky to just have been able to escape the house without being stopped for a battery of repetitive and extremely boring chores, and was now at a playground over a few streets on Magnolia Road. Harry liked to come here often, unless Dudley was on one of his great 'Harry-Hunting' sprees. Thankfully Dudley was away with Uncle Vernon visiting his Aunt Marge today and Harry mercifully hadn't been invited (or, in reality, forced,) to go with them, which was perfectly fine with him.

Harry was sitting on his favorite swing, watching the other children as they were laughing and running around the playground and grassy areas of the park. He wished he could join in, but all the other children were far too aware of the hatred Dudley's gang had for ' _that strange Potter boy_ ,' and therefore they were very keen to stay away from him completely. Harry was pondering what Aunt Petunia would do if he came home too early for her liking, when suddenly someone sat down in the swing next to him and said something very strange in an airy, melodic voice.

" _Mae govannen,_ _Kentano. Amin sii' sinome a' lle ie' tella_."

Harry blinked, not reacting until he realized that the voice was, in fact, addressing him. Finally turning to see who spoke to him, Harry replied hesitantly, "Err… what?"

A boy with black, shoulder-length, wavy hair and striking blue eyes sat there looking at Harry with a huge grin splitting his face. Harry guessed the boy was about his own age, but it was hard to guess as he was a foot or so shorter. Whatever the boy had said though, it hadn't sounded like any language Harry was familiar with. And yet, there was something extremely familiar about the boy, even though Harry knew that there was no chance that they had ever met before.

" _Mae govannen_ ," the boy repeated, slower. "It means 'Hello.'"

"Oh," Harry said, still unsure what on earth it was the boy had been speaking or what the rest of whatever he had said meant. "Err, hello, then…" he shifted on the swing awkwardly, "Err… who are you? I haven't seen you around here before."

"Well, wouldn't expect that you'd ever seen me before, seeing as how I only just moved here to stay with my dear Aunt Figgie." The boy responded, still smiling widely at Harry.

"Aunt… who?" Harry said, still very puzzled. The boy was speaking very fast, excitement clear in his bright face, and that made it hard to understand him.

"My Aunt, Arabella Figg. She lives over on Magnolia Crescent; I've called her Aunt Figgie since I could talk and the name just kinda stuck." The boy shrugged. "Since my parents died I'll be staying with her from now on."

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that," Harry whispered apologetically, not recalling if Mrs. Figg had ever mentioned having relatives Harry's age from the many times he had stayed with her over the years, and, before he could stop himself, added "My parents are dead too."

He didn't know why the words had slipped out, but it felt appropriate to talk to this boy about his parents because they were somewhat similar. He didn't know why, but it just felt right. "I never really knew them, though, and I live with my Aunt and Uncle now."

The boy jerked his head mutely, commiserating with a grimace. "At least we still have people to take care of us, right?" he said, the smile returning, smaller than before.

"Right, if you call it caring," Harry retorted sullenly, before catching himself again. Why was he telling the boy all this? Uncle Vernon would lock him in his cupboard for months if he found out Harry had complained about their living situation in any fashion. But there was just something different about this kid, something very compelling that made Harry want to blurt out everything, to confide every secret he could with him. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I ever got your name," he said to stop himself from revealing anything more.

"I'm Piter, Piter De Vries," the boy said, smiling and extending his hand to Harry.

"Harry Potter," Harry replied, taking it and giving it a few firm shakes. Vaguely he recalled that the name was Dutch in origin, from something one of his primary school teachers had mentioned, but when his hand came in contact with Piter's, Harry felt a strange warm tingle crawl up his arm and throughout his body, immediately putting him further at ease. Was it just him or did Piter's smile broaden when Harry said his own name? Almost as if he already knew him... but Harry shook his head; that was impossible.

"Oh, I've heard of you;" Piter confirmed, recognizing his confusion. "Aunt Figgie told me that you may be dropping by every so often when your relatives go out for special occasions."

' _So that was how he already knew my name_ ,' Harry thought, nodding. It made sense. "Yeah, my Aunt and Uncle don't like to have me around to 'ruin' their outings," Harry explained, still spilling more than he felt expressly comfortable with. "Whenever they can, they drop me at Mrs. Figg's for an afternoon, sometimes longer."

"Well, Harry Potter, would you do me the honor of being my first friend in this new place?"

Harry almost fell out of his swing at the idea; who would want to be friends with him? "Err… I'd love to, but you might want to pick a safer friend. My cousin, Dudley, and his gang of friends like to beat up anyone who they find around me..." Harry said, trailing off to a murmur, not saying the rest loud enough to be heard, not wanting to say it, although he knew Piter would eventually find out.

"What was that last bit?" Piter pressed, concerned at Harry's sullen muttering.

Sighing, Harry turned away and quietly repeated "…because I'm a freak." He didn't want to see the other boy's reaction.

He was shocked when the smaller boy turned him back around roughly, "Well, I've only got two things to say to that: Firstly, I don't give a pebble what your cousin or his little prats he must have for _friends_ think; I will be friends with you regardless, because I want to. You're nice and I like you, and no one has power to stop me from doing as I please. And second, I severely doubt you are any more of a freak than I could possibly be." Piter boldly announced, getting up and walking around to stand directly in front of Harry while giving him a mischievous grin. "If they try to give us any grief, they will _sorely_ regret it."

Harry felt slight doubtful that Piter truly could back up what he said about Dudley regretting anything, but knowing that somebody didn't care a whit about what other people thought about Harry or his strangeness still felt very good. He looked up and gave Piter a shy smile, which was returned more boldly by his new, and indeed first, friend.

"So," said Harry, "what do you want to do?"

Piter rubbed his chin thoughtfully, leaning in closer to Harry. "Well, we could always play… TAG!" He suddenly yelled, tapping a very startled Harry on the nose and running off in the other direction, laughing delightedly. Harry bolted after him, stumbling slightly as he rocketed out of the swing, but slowly catching up to Piter, enjoying the advantage of his longer legs. The two boys continued back and forth like this for almost an hour until, exhausted, they collapsed together on a grassy spot, both clutching their sides and laughing uncontrollably.

"That… was… great!" Piter wheezed between sniggers.

"Yeah… it was." Harry agreed, panting. He was aching all over from the constant chasing and his legs were on fire, but he could not remember ever having such a good time.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"I really like doing stuff with you. Do you want to play again tomorrow?"

Harry thought for a moment. He really liked Piter, and he would want nothing more than to meet with him again, but he doubted that he would be able to get out of the house again so easily.

Gloomily, Harry answered "I'm not sure if I can manage to get away again tomorrow."

"Well, if you can't get away, why don't I come and just get you?" Piter asked, eyes sparkling with excitement.

"That'd be awesome, but I'm not sure…"

"It's settled then!" Piter interrupted, clapping his hands together with finality. "I'll come and check on you every week to arrange what we can do and when with your relatives. I mean, how bad can they be?" Harry wasn't sure he liked the sound of that plan, but Piter wouldn't hear of anything else, so he went along with it. He still conveniently forgot to tell Piter where he lived thought, just in case.

The next day Harry was vacuuming the sitting room after breakfast when there was a loud knocking on the front door. Uncle Vernon went to the door himself for once, and opened it to find a very brightly smiling Piter standing on his doorstep.

Disinterested immediately, Uncle Vernon turned away and called out "Dudley, one of your little friends is here for you."

"Actually sir, I'm here to see Harry Potter." Piter replied, and Uncle Vernon whipped back around, looking at him dumbfounded.

"You're joking, right?" he asked in all seriousness.

"Nope!" Piter replied simply, grinning like a fool as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

"BOY!" Vernon half yelled. Harry had already been watching the exchange from behind a nearby corner, so he simply stepped into view.

"How many times have I told you not to tell people where we live?" Vernon said in a stern whisper, glowering down at Harry.

"Sir, Harry never actually told me where he lived; I kinda figured it out by myself." Piter interjected matter-of-factly, as well as overhearing every word that Uncle Vernon had said.

Uncle Vernon, still eyeing Harry suspiciously, turned back to Piter. "Well, now that you found where he lives, what do you want?" he questioned coldly.

"I wanted to know if Harry could come out to play," Piter said cheerfully, looking Vernon right in the eye. "We met at the park yesterday, you see, and I was hoping we could set up times for us to meet over the week. Harry said he had chores to do and wasn't sure when he could meet me at the park over on Magnolia Road, so I decided to come and see when Harry would be available," he added quickly with a wide grin, practically bouncing in full blown excitement.

Dudley finally appeared to see why his father had called him, coming through the door from the kitchen and stopping next to his father, directly in front of Harry, blocking his view outside. "Who the blooming hell are you?" he sneered.

Piter, who looked like he was expecting this reaction, stuck out his hand swiftly and said to Dudley "I'm Piter De Vries, Harry's friend. You must be his cousin, Dudley."

Dudley looked as shocked as if Piter had sprouted a second head and, ignoring the offered hand, said flatly "Why'd you want to be friends with that freak? You got a death wish or something?"

"Why not, I don't think that he could be any worse than _some_ people." Piter said curtly, looking pointedly at Dudley for a moment, and then, turning back to Uncle Vernon, he ignored Dudley from then on. "So, what days and times can I expect to be able to play with Harry, sir, so that I can tell my Aunt when to expect me home late?"

Vernon studied the boy for a moment, and, shooting a fierce glace back at Harry, started to name off days, giving a very rough estimation of the times that Harry might _possibly_ be free those days. The nearest one was conveniently almost a week away. Piter appeared slightly disappointed at first, but hid it well under a bright, optimistic exterior.

"Alright then, I guess I'll show up next week to play with Harry then, sir." Piter said, while shooting a conspiratorial grin at Harry.

Uncle Vernon merely grunted and shut the door loudly as Piter turned to walk away. Harry knew what was coming next as his Uncle turned and scowled furiously at him. He had the same look that Harry had seen whenever he did anything that seemed just innocent enough to be strange and strange enough to appear innocent.

As Harry had thought, he spent the entire week in his cupboard and only had one meal every other day, if you could call burnt toast and half a glass of water a meal. All because he had let himself be followed home by a complete stranger. To the Dursleys, anyone who would willingly associate with Harry could never be anything more than a stranger.

Harry swore up and down to Uncle Vernon that he saw Piter leave the park in the complete opposite direction as him, and reasoned that his friend must have doubled back and followed him home so that he would know where Harry lived. Personally Harry wondered more about how Piter seemed to just know that he had loads of chores to do, as Harry had never, even remotely, hinted at it himself.

However, true to his word for once when concerning Harry, Uncle Vernon let him go out three times a week to play with Piter in the afternoons after his chores. The two friends did everything they could imagine and more, from roaming the streets to just sitting on the lawn of Mrs. Figg's house and chatting the day away. But, just as Harry's life couldn't be any better, the inevitable problem finally erupted when Dudley caught Harry and Piter in the park with his entire gang.

"Hey, look Big D!" sneered Piers Polkiss, Dudley's right hand thug and 'best friend'.

"It's Potter," Malcolm, one of the largest boy, added with a grin.

"Who's he with?" asked Dennis, the other giant, next to Dudley himself.

"Oi! Potty, who's your boyfriend?" jeered Gordon, the final member of the gang.

"Let me handle this, Harry," whispered Piter, and before Harry could hold him back or tell him to run, he stepped toward the five menacing bullies.

"I'm going to tell you this once, and only once you lot. Sod off if you know what's good for you, or you will learn to regret your words." Piter stated with unsurpassed confidence.

Amidst all the responding taunts and insults, Dudley stepped forward, towering over Piter by at least a foot. "De Vries, you'd better stay away from that freak if you know what's good for you," he threatened, but Piter didn't back down. If anything, this statement seemed to only embolden the small, ebony haired boy further.

"I think," he stated flatly, "that you have no clue who or what you are messing with, therefore, I will do as I wish, and I see fit to be friends with Harry, and you cannot and indeed will not stop me."

"Have it your way, then," Dudley sneered, and the others all cracked their knuckles, preparing for what could only be an easy beat down.

Piter surprised all of them, Harry most of all, when he struck first; he punched Dudley with all his might in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He followed up by kneeing the larger boy in the face and finally sweeping Dudley's legs out from under him, laying Harry's cousin flat on the ground, moaning in pain and sporting a bloody nose.

The other four boys looked shocked, but for only a moment before springing in to avenge their fallen leader. Somehow, Piter moved completely out of their way, seeming to disappear and reappear behind them to sucker-punch Malcolm right in the kidney while simultaneously kicking out at Piers, catching him hard in the groin. Dennis tried to throw a punch at Piter but found his fist caught in the smaller boy's hand, which was violently turned by Piter, using the bully's momentum against him to flip him over onto his back.

Gordon managed to grab Piter around the waist, pinning his arms at his side, but before anyone could start to lay into him, Piter threw his entire body weight backward, overbalancing the stocky boy and landing full force on top on him. In seconds Piter was back on his feet and in a clear fighting pose, staring down all the older boys, silently daring them to make another move against him.

"Five on one, I don't think it's very fair, do you?" Piter sneered at the bullies, "Maybe you should get a few more, so it might be a challenge for me."

When Dudley and his friends finally got to their feet, Harry thought that they would try again, but apparently they had decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valor, and fled. Sighing slightly, Piter turned to look at Harry, and grinned at the look of absolute shock on his face.

"What?" he asked.

"You just took on five kids twice as big as you and won," Harry said stupidly.

"Your point?" Piter retorted, suppressing a fit of laughter. "You honestly think just 'cause I'm small means I don't know how to fight when needed?"

Harry had no answer for him, as at that they both burst out laughing until their sides threatened to split open.

 _Mae govannen : Greetings, hello_

 _amin sii' sinome a' lle ie' tella : I have returned to you at last_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

 _So, I felt that keeping this chapter more or less consistent with the original was important, as it was a slice of life for Harry in the beginning of the chapter, along with the introduction of 'Piter,' cough cough... Fay, cough cough... and the establishment of how close their friendship was, which apves the way for how they together interact with the rest of the future characters._

 _I did however, stretch out a bit on Harry's initial perspective, and point out more of the oddities that he personally saw in his new friend, as I had several comment before that Harry seemed far too accepting of all the strangeness about his best friend, which I can understand, and so I plan to establish small plot line that investigates that, cumulating in a bit more understanding of the persona that weaves about the little OC/not exactly an OC, that I've injected into the story._

 _Also I tried, probably failed but it was likely better than the original, to keep them closer to the age that they ought to be portraying, although description words outside of direct thought or dialogue will return to the same standard I always use, in a guilty pleasure, the fight with Dudley was more or less identical, as it was satisfying to write the horrid child getting put in his place by one smaller than him and his gang, and sets more event in motion far later on down the line._

 _ALSO, if you are one of those special people that is familiar with the original, and therefore knows generally where the story is going, and want to point out something that may have been odd in your mind or otherwise you wanted to see happen, either PM me directly, review that chapter where the idea was in the original, or leave it here in a review, I do read them, and respond to far more than I ought to at times. If I find merit in the change or addition that you suggest, it may well find its way into the story. Just going to throw that out there, and leave you with it for a time. Until the next chapter my readers._

 _~F_


	3. Y1-C2: A Wondrous Secret

_For those who are still unaware, there is a bug going on in where notification emails are not being sent out, So despite posting this chapter, many people will sadly not see it at the appropriate time, although I hope that the issue has been rectified by the time I post. Still, I felt like positing another chapter, and so here is it. Enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Two:**

 **A Wondrous Secret  
**

The next three years flew by so quickly to Harry that felt he must have been asleep for at least half of it. Despite the Dursleys complaining loudly about how 'that mean De Vries boy,' was so terrible as to have hurt their 'precious Dudders' and practically forbidding Harry from ever seeing him again after that first time together, Piter continued to show up every week, and even Vernon's continued offensive snipes at him couldn't discourage him.

Harry even noticed that every attempt to separate the two boys only seemed to spur Piter to some new degree of closeness with Harry, sometimes even suddenly appearing at the store that Petunia had just happened taken Harry to a few times.

Dudley was actually rather terrified of the smaller boy, and he refused to be left in the same room as Piter whenever he came to pick up or drop off Harry. Harry had to stifle his laughter whenever Dudley would run screaming from the house if Piter came too near to him.

Harry did become worried about how the Dursleys would act when, on Dudley's eleventh birthday, Harry was forced to come along with his relatives to the special zoo trip, as their usual means of depositing him at Mrs. Figg's house was denied them, much to the chagrin of both Harry and Dudley, albeit for far different reasons.

Unfortunately the old woman was simply too busy that day to watch Harry, and even added as an aside to Harry personally that he would be bored if he had to stay with her right then anyway, as Piter had also been forced out of the house for the day with all the work she had to do. The Dursleys had begged and pleaded with the old woman, but she had flatly refused, even their vain attempts to suggest that she have Harry do her work for her. As they left her house, Harry was almost certain that she had winked at him before closing her cat decorated door.

The why to the conspiratorial gesture became evident as the Dursleys' and Harry walked through the main gate of the zoo; they found Piter sitting near one of the refreshments booths, which served nothing but to add to the Dursleys' discomfort for the day.

"Hi Harry!" the other boy called out as they passed, and Piter immediately rushed over to join his best friend.

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked furious at the boy's presence, and Dudley seemed like he was about ready to throw the tantrum of the century. However, Aunt Petunia's finely tuned radar for Dudley's fits kicked in and she quickly suggested to Uncle Vernon that they should buy her 'sweet Diddydums,' some ice cream. Both Vernon and Dudley bought a large chocolate Sunday each, but specifically got nothing nothing for either Harry or Piter, but they didn't mind much. Piter afterword whispered to Harry that there wouldn't have been any left for them even if they had wanted ice cream, and Harry snorted loudly, only covering his mouth to disguise it as a cough at the last minute before any of the Dursleys overheard him.

But Harry should have known that this lucky turn of events would only end badly. The inevitable eruption that threatened his entire relationship with Piter finally came, just as Harry had long feared.

They had had a short lunch, during which Harry and Piter sat far away from the Dursleys, eating sandwiches that Piter had had the foresight to bring for himself and, both conveniently and graciously, enough extra to share with Harry as well.

Finally Dudley practically dragged his parents into the reptile house, and curiously both Harry and Piter followed. Cool air wafted over them as they entered, and it took their eyes a few moments to adjust to the darkness, but then they stared in amazement at all the different lizards and snakes that lined the sides of the building behind thick glass walls.

Dudley quickly became bored with the boa constrictor in the largest and newest exhibit, which appeared to be sleeping, and slumped off, allowing Piter and Harry to see inside. Harry moved right up against the glass, and Piter moved to stand right beside him, but Harry didn't notice as he was focused intently on the snake. Slowly, the snake roused slightly, and opened its eyes to look directly at Harry.

" _I'm sorry if I woke you._ " Harry said softly to it.

The snake suddenly rose up and silently moved close to Harry's eye level. Piter's eyes widened as the snake actually started to hiss back at Harry, and Harry was shocked to find he could understand it.

" _It'ssss not your fault, young sssspeaker of our mosssst noble tongue._ " The snake said gently."

"Harry," Piter said with quiet excitement "Do you know what you're doing?" The boy was almost bouncing with renewed enthusiasm.

"Um, no." Harry replied confused, blinking.

"You're speaking Parseltongue! Do you even know how exceptionally rare and amazing that talent is!" Piter was visibly trying to keep himself from yelling; so great was his exhilaration at Harry's… ability?

"I'm… what?" Harry was completely lost, thinking this might be more of Piter's strange almost made up language again.

"You honestly don't know, do you?" Piter looked almost shocked, and very saddened.

"Harry…" Piter began, but was suddenly cut off as Dudley screamed for his parents to look at what the snake was doing, and shoved past the smaller boys, knocking them to the ground.

Harry fell hard onto the concrete floor, and looked up angrily. Dudley was leaning right up against the glass, fascinated by the raised snake, when suddenly he leapt back. Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had completely vanished. The large snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. As the snake slid swiftly past him, it whispered to him once more before trailing out the door.

" _Freedom, here I come... Thanksss, amigo._ "

Piter had dashed over to help Harry up and was practically jumping out of his skin in his urgency to talk to Harry, but Uncle Vernon reached the boys before he could pick up where Dudley had cut in. Taking Harry hard by the upper arm, Vernon dragged him while Petunia guided Dudley out and into the parking lot. By the time Piter arrived, with only time to wave goodbye, the Dursley were peeling out back onto the road leaving behind a cloud of dust.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The punishment Harry received from the boa incident was longest Harry could ever remember. Harry was released from his cupboard on the week before his birthday (which the Dursleys still weren't in the habit of remembering anyway, so that wasn't important), and finally was sitting down for a breakfast from the least filled plate when compared to the rest of the Dursleys', when the clink of the mail slot was heard, and Uncle Vernon commanded angrily: "Boy; mail!".

Sighing inwardly, Harry abandoned his untouched plate, knowing it wouldn't be there when he returned, and exited the dining room. Harry was just picking up the three delivered envelopes as the doorbell rang, and Harry quickly opened it after another yell from his Uncle demanded he open it. It was Piter, looking breathless and ecstatic, which was rather normal.

"Harry!" he wheezed slightly. "Did you see; did you get one?" Once again, Harry was confused, but Piter looked down at the mail in Harry's hand and gasped loudly.

"You did!" he crowed, snatching the bottom envelope from Harry and jumping on the spot in delight, waving it over his head.

"Piter… whoa… what… slow down..." Harry said attempting to calm the overly excited boy and see what the odd, yellow colored envelope had written on it, neither to any avail.

"We get to go, we get to go" Piter was chanting louder and louder until Harry finally clamped a hand over the boy's mouth to silence him as Uncle Vernon yelled for Harry to shut up and hurry with the mail. Closing the front door he left Piter, who was doing some kind of Native American war dance in the hall - mercifully silently, Harry returned and gave the two items of mail to Vernon, frowned momentarily at Dudley's large grin as the boy had clearly eaten not only his own food, but what little was given to Harry, and returned quickly to find Piter comparing two almost identical envelopes of yellowed parchment covered with green lettering in ink, with a frighteningly serious look on his usually so jovial face. Harry looked over his friend's shoulder to read the addresses on each envelope. The first read:

 _Mr. H. Potter_

 _The Cupboard under the Stairs_

 _4 Privet Drive_

 _Little Whinging_

 _Surrey_

Harry blushed slightly, realizing that his best friend was staring at the second line of his address with a clenched jaw, but the opened envelope distracted Harry, as the letter beneath it had a strange coat of arms on it and the address read:

 _Mr. F Undol_

 _1_ _st_ _Guest Bedroom_

 _12 Wisteria Walk_

 _Little Whinging_

 _Surrey_

"Piter, who is this 'Mr. F Undol' mentioned on your letter?" Harry asked, concerned that his friend might be slightly more delusional than usual.

I am, Harry, my real name is Faykan Undol," the boy replied, eyes still staring at Harry's envelope, "I'm sorry for giving you a false identity for so long, but it was necessary for my safety from the people who killed my parents."

Harry could tell this wasn't the whole truth, because Piter-Faykan wouldn't look at him, eyes darting from Harry back to the letter in his hand. It was a tell that he had learned long ago, and gave the other boy away immediately

"Then, where'd you come up with the name Piter De Vries?" Harry asked, prying only slightly.

"Oh, I think I read it in a book somewhere," Faykan replied dismissively. "But that's not important, the fact is we both got accepted!" he continued happily, but strangely muted in comparison to his previous excitement.

"Accepted for what?" Harry said, starting to get slightly annoyed with his friend's evasiveness and the entire puzzle of the letters.

"Hogwarts of course, what else did you think we were accepted to?" Faykan replied, finally handing Harry his letter back and watching wide-eyed as Harry opened and read:

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

 _Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

 _(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

 _Dear Mr. Potter,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall,_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

Harry was dumbstruck; so many questions spiraling inside his head that he couldn't even compose a simple sentence for a few moments. His friend, Faykan, (Harry actually thought that the boy's real name sounded a lot better than the one he had made up for himself,) seemed to be enjoying the faces that Harry was making as he slowly processed the information presented before him. Harry was just about to begin firing off questions when Uncle Vernon came out of the kitchen and saw them holding their letters.

"What are you doing boy!" he said sternly as he approached, clearly of the opinion that Harry had been stealing their mail. Harry tried to move the letter out of sight, but he wasn't fast enough. Uncle Vernon's giant hand snatched the letter from him, and the beefy man read it twice over, his face darkening from red to deep purple.

"Uh oh," Faykan whispered sarcastically to Harry as Vernon yelled for Petunia and stood there fuming until she came and also read the letter. "Here it comes…"

Finally, Aunt Petunia glanced at the two boys and saw the same similar letter in Faykan's hand. "SO," she said hotly, "now we know why you seemed like such a freaky child yourself, Mr. De Vries!"

Faykan did the one thing Harry would never have expected. Faykan actually started laughing out loud at Petunia, a sarcastic, spiteful laugh that set everyone in the room on edge.

"You have some nerve, Dursleys, trying to smother Harry out of what he is, driving others away from him, and generally being the worst specimens of human beings I've ever had the unfortunate _pleasure_ to meet. I've tolerated your rudeness these last three years for Harry's sake, but no more!" He smirked nastily at their shocked looks. "We've both been accepted to Hogwarts, and we won't have to deal with you lot for quite a long while."

"He will absolutely not be going!" Vernon yelled, flabbergasted at Faykan's audacity.

"Oh, and you, the great king of the muggles is going to keep him away, are you?" Faykan retorted with a curt sarcastic bow.

"What did you call me boy!" Vernon hissed icily.

"A muggle, you know, the slur for nonmagical and very much hateful folk like you are, Vernon Dursley." Faykan explained with fire burning in his eyes. "Now, unless you want some very nasty things to happen very soon, you'd be wise to just step aside and let Harry come with me to get our things for Hogwarts so we can be ready to leave in September."

"HE WILL NOT BE GOING!" Vernon roared, grabbing at Faykan, clearly with the intent to throw him forcibly from the house, but before he could reach him, Faykan shoved out a hand and spoke, " _lanta n'alaquel tuulo' amin_ " and at once an invisible force threw Uncle Vernon away from the small eleven year old, and he landed in a heap against the kitchen door. Aunt Petunia screamed and dashed to her husband's side. Electric sparks seemed to jump around Faykan and the room itself seemed to quake in fear as he glared at the Dursleys.

"Never attempt to physically harm me, Vernon Dursley. You do not want to see my true power." Faykan said scathingly, his voice cold as ice as he slowly lowered his hand. Turning to Harry, he motioned at the door as he opened it for them to leave. "Let's go Harry; you can stay with me for the next month if you don't want to come back here."

Harry swiftly moved outside and was followed by Faykan, who slammed the front door to number four loudly. Together the two boys turned and walked down Privet Drive and headed to the closest train station.

"Piter… um I mean Faykan" Harry started, "How did you do that to Uncle Vernon?"

"What, you mean when I threw that hateful excuse for a muggle across the room? That was merely a simple blasting hex."

The answer didn't help much, as Harry hadn't the foggiest what a 'blasting hex' was. In fact he was completely lost with all that had just happened this morning and was feeling slightly dazed at the amount of information thrown at him. It was all he could do to just keep walking down the sidewalk. Faykan, noticing Harry's near-vacant expression of overwhelming stupor, sat him down on the nearest bus bench and started to explain everything he could very quickly.

"Harry, I know you are extremely confused, and I'm going to take all the time it requires to explain all this if it comes to that, but first off you need to know one important thing. Your relatives, the Dursleys, have been keeping many, many secrets from you. Firstly you are not a normal person, and neither am I for that matter. You and I are wizards. We can do magic, just like when you vanished the glass on the snake cage at the zoo."

Faykan then talked about everything that the Dursleys had told Harry his entire life, explaining the weird things that had happened around him as his magic and sharing what the Dursleys had changed or left out. Harry wondered how his friend knew half the things he spoke of, such as the Dursleys telling him that his parents died in an intoxicated car crash, but was far too befuddled to ask specifics. Faykan leaned over and hugged Harry when he spoke of Harry's parents, apologizing profusely for everything those 'horrid muggles' had lied to him about, and that he had had to wait to tell Harry the truth until the Hogwarts letters arrived for them both.

When Harry pointedly asked what the truth about his parents was, desperate for information, Faykan slowly explained that they were murdered by an evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, when Harry was only one year old, and that Harry survived the dark Killing Curse that Voldemort used to try and murder Harry also.

"But the strangest thing happened," Faykan said, starting to get caught up in storytelling, he was always very good at that, "Voldemort's curse rebounded upon himself or something like that and he just vanished. No one had seen or heard of him for ten years now. That's why you've been named the Boy-Who-Lived. Your name is known throughout our world, Harry."

Stunned couldn't even begin to describe how Harry felt about this bit of news.

"Harry, we should get going; London isn't getting any closer with us just sitting here." Faykan said, standing.

"London?" Harry said, stumped. "Why do we need to go to London?"

"It's the only place we can reach that will have all the materials we need for Hogwarts." Faykan replied tersely.

Harry shakily got up and followed as Faykan continued down to the train station. When they reached the station and boarded a train that was to depart in five minutes, they both simply passed the ticket taker without a word to him. As he turned to call after the two boys, Faykan turned and waved him hand speaking the same high pitch, song-like words Harry had heard when his uncle was thrown across the front room of number four. " _Collanta lye anta tuulo' ron rina_."

The guard's face went blank momentarily and he turned away as if they hadn't been there. When the train started to rumble down the tracks towards London, Faykan turned to Harry and showed him the list of Hogwarts required items from his own letter, since Uncle Vernon had never given back Harry's.

"Faykan, don't the letters say that we need to respond via owl to tell them that we're going to attend?" Harry asked worriedly. He had no idea what was meant by 'respond via owl'.

"Not a problem, I'll handle it when we're done getting our things at Diagon Alley." Faykan replied, patting Harry on the shoulder reassuringly. Harry was about to ask what Diagon Ally was when the train arrived at the London station.

Faykan had to drag Harry down the street by the arm to get him to keep moving, as Harry kept trying to stop and see everything around them all at once – it was his first time in London. Thankfully the walk wasn't too terribly long, or else Harry was too wrapped up trying to see the new sights of the big city to have noticed, because it only seemed moments before Faykan was pushing Harry into a dirty little pub with a sign saying ' _The Leaky Cauldron._ '

Faykan steered Harry around all the people and tables without acknowledging all the stares and whispers they were attracting. The name Harry Potter was circulating and Harry was shocked that everyone seemed to know exactly who he was even with Faykan effectively guiding him toward the back of the pub while simultaneously discouraging anyone from approaching the two boys.

"Hello again, Faykan, out for some more shopping in Diagon Alley I see," said the bartender, as he peered at Faykan and Harry. "Who's your friend?"

"No time to chat, Tom, we got our Hogwarts letters today and we need to get our things as soon as wizardly possible." Faykan replied dismissively.

Tom was about to push further, but Faykan pulled open the back door and pushed Harry out into a walled courtyard behind the pub. Harry was about to question why all the people were whispering about him, but Faykan was studying the back wall near the trash can. Lifting both hands he spoke again, " _annon edro amin naia lle_." The bricks forming the back wall shuddered, and started to rearrange themselves into an archway that lead to a cobbled street that lead on and out as far as Harry could see.

"Welcome, Harry, to Diagon Alley," said Faykan.

He grinned at Harry's look of amazement as they stepped through the archway. Harry had thought London was a sight to see. Looking quickly over his shoulder, Harry saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall, sealing them in the alley. Glancing around nervously and very excitedly, Harry desperately wished they could stop and look in all the interesting shop windows, but Faykan was back to dragging him along by the wrist, winding through the throngs of people towards a large white building that rose above any of the other shops.

Faykan only let go of Harry's arm when they finally passed the bronze doors of the magnificent edifice. Faykan proceeded on inside, and by this point Harry thought it was safest to just follow him rather than be dragged anymore, his wrist was feeling slightly sore. As the two boys passed through another pair of doors, silver this time, they entered a long hall filled with small creatures with long fingers and pointed beards.

"Faykan, what exactly are those?" Harry asked in a whisper.

"Goblins, Harry," Faykan replied as he approached one who didn't look as busy as the others. He coughed softly to attract its attention and the goblin scrutinized the eleven year old with a calculating gaze.

"May I help you… young man?" the goblin asked, glancing down from its high stool at the two boys.

"Yes, Misters Harry Potter and Faykan Undol wish to make withdrawals." Faykan replied coolly.

"Do you have your keys?" the goblin replied

"I have mine," said Faykan, pulling out a tiny silver key, and then he shot a glance at Harry, "However, Mr. Harry Potter does not," he added.

"Then Mr. Harry Potter will need to submit to a brief blood test to confirm his identity and receive a replacement key," the goblin stated as it examined the tarnished key that Faykan gave him in confused amazement.

"This key is in order." The goblin said with a wide, toothy grin, before it slipped off its stool and moved toward Harry, motioning for him to hold out his arm. Harry did so and winced as the goblin pricked his thumb with a small crystal needle. When a small drop of blood trickled down the crystal, gold writing wrote itself along the handle, spelling out ' _Harry James Potter_ ' in small, curvy letters.

"All is in order; one moment please, Mr. Potter." The goblin snapped its fingers and a golden key, small but still bigger than Faykan's silver key, flew from somewhere and sailed into its hand. The goblin handed the key to Harry, and motioned for them to follow him deeper into the hall. The goblin held the door open for the two boys and they walked through to find a small platform with a metal cart waiting with another goblin inside who was introduced to them by the name of Griphook.

Harry climbed in, followed closely by Faykan, whose wide grin had returned, and they started off at a tremendous speed. As they plunged down into the depths of the bank, Faykan let out a whoop of pure delight, and Harry noticed that the cart wasn't being steered by any mechanisms or controls that he could see.

As quickly as the cart started, it stopped again next to a protruding ledge. Griphook hopped out and walked over to the far wall where a small door was inlaid into the rock.

"Vault six hundred eighty seven," said Griphook sharply, looking at Harry, "key please." Harry handed the goblin his small golden key, and stood back as the goblin unlocked the large padlock on the door and swung it open. As the light reflected off the mounds of metal coins within, Harry let out an audible gasp of astonishment. It was more money than he had ever seen in his lifetime.

"I'd explain the money system to you, Harry, but you have enough money that it won't matter a lot right this moment and you'll pick it up quickly enough." Faykan said, his renewed grin plastered on his face after the cart ride. He helped Harry fill a bag with the golden coins that he called Galleons, and they piled back into the cart and sped off through the tunnels until they arrived at another vault numbered two hundred sixteen.

After Griphook opened the silver door that was slightly larger than Harry's had been, Harry thought his eyes would fall out of their sockets. Not only were there piles of money at least three times larger than in Harry's vault, but there were a row of shelves in the back of the vault that held a variety of strange looking objects, including a large sword that was hung on the wall next to the shelves. Faykan piled a similar bag full of gold just as Harry had and he ushered Harry back into the cart to take the wild ride back up to the surface.

As the two boys exited Gringotts, Faykan sighed to himself, "Those cart rides never last long enough," Harry laughed out loud at his friend's longing look at the marble building and they started back up the alley.

"We might as well get our robes first." Faykan said, pointing at ' _Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'_. "I mean, it's probably going to take the longest and be the most boring, but since it's right there…" Harry simply shrugged and they walked into the store together. Inside, a squat witch with a bright smile bustled out of the back and made her way over to them. "Hogwarts, dears?" she said and Faykan and Harry both nodded.

"Don't really expect the majority until some time yet, but we'll get you sorted out in no time. Another young man is being fitted for dress robes right now, but I can take one of you now; the other will have to wait a bit though."

"I'll wait until Harry is finished," Faykan said before Harry could offer for himself to wait instead, "We both want full compliments for first years, as well as day robes for home if you don't mind." He added as an afterthought. Madam Malkin beamed at the suddenly increased amount of business that Faykan's words implied, and guided them both into the rear of the store.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead!** **You have been warned!**

 _Cue Ramblings!_

 _So, as you may have noticed the first change I made was retitling the chapter to something relatively different. Mainly that was due to what I felt was a rather rush job on my part when it came to naming the early chapters, and I hope that I had gotten much better at it during the course of my writing. needless to say it took almost 5 minutes to think of a better title, as there is a bit that goes on in the chapter, and I try to sum it all up in a short phrase, but the list method was somewhat... tacky to me, I guess._

 _Some small additions that emphasized how deeply 'Piter' had entrenched himself into Harry's life were added, as it did seem, while not rushed, still something that ought to have been flushed out just a touch more, while still leaving the early years of Harry's life rather unmentioned... lets be honest, OC add in or not, pre 11 year olds in HP world are boring to read about, MOST of the time (I say this as I have read a good fic or two that have extremely young Harry, but at the same time most weren't... not being mean, just honest.)_

 _Yes, I kept the self insert on the name for the "OC" character... ironically it was not intentional, its really just the name that I use for almost everything, and its my go-to user name for most things as well, and I literally forgot that it was my profile name when I gave the second "true" name of the character, and it just stuck..._

 _The last name, is another thing altogether that I created, but I will not explain it as that would spoil potential works of the future that may be on the more publishable variety, and id rather have people aloof of what that name's connotation would be if they somehow found a hypothetical copy of said future story... (basically, original novel, thanks fan fiction for giving me the urge to write to my hearts content and express all my madness in written form for others' amusement!)_

 _Some people have mentioned regarding the previous chapter that the immediate closeness that Harry and Faykan have, especially when they first meet and Harry is practically blurting out things he'd rather keep secret seemed rather uncharacteristic of any child, but I remind that this is not an ordinary friendship, as per the prologue connecting the mysterious old man to piter/faykan, which for some odd reason most people didn't catch in the original, even though I thought it was somewhat obvious, but nevertheless I attempted to make that more clear this run through._

 _More description of Faykan being sympathetic to Harry's bout of near total breakdown from information overload I felt was greatly needed, and a small amount of clutter removal from the diagon alley into scene, which was slightly all over the place I think._

 _more to come, and trust me there has been even more major reworks than anything you've seen yet, I've partially rewritten one chapter already, and many of you that read the first edition could probably guess exactly which chapter I am referring to from year one... but we're not even close to that one yet, so no needs to worry too much about that just yet._

 _As a fun addition, reviews that answer this question would be appreciated: What did/do you think of Faykan/Piter from just these opening two chapters and the prologue, and why? I just want to satisfy my urge to know whether he has translated across to the reader as I intended._

 _Until next time: ~F_


	4. Y1-C3: Diagon Alley

_My it's been a short time since I posted for this one, it almost feels wrong or something, what with the consistency that I put into the other two stories, but I suppose that is to be expected, and no one has thus far complained, so I ought to be doing something right then? Well, in any case, enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Three:**

 **Diagon Alley**

Draco Malfoy was getting impatient with the witch who was pinning up his new dress robes to the correct length, she was taking an extraordinary long time at it, when he heard the bell chime, signaling that new customers had entered Madam Malkin's shop.

He wasn't sure exactly why his parents had decided to come a few weeks earlier to the marketplace than when they had told him that they would be purchasing his things for Hogwarts; it seemed rather inefficient to him, but they had become awfully clingy once the letter itself had arrived, as though he was going away forever or something. That at least, he could partially understand, even if it was a little absurd.

' _Oh good, Father or Mother have returned to keep me company_ ,' he thought, relieved at the possible freedom from the drudgery of standing completely still for what felt like forever.

But he was momentarily disappointed to discover that it wasn't either of his parents who were led into the back by Madam Malkin, but rather two other boys close to his own age. Both had black hair, but taller of the two had more of a messy mop while the other's was shoulder length and wavier. The slightly taller boy, who was still shorter than Draco himself, had green eyes and glasses and looked incredibly nervous, while the shorter had crystal blue and almost radiated confidence.

' _Well at least it's someone to talk to_ ,' Draco thought bitterly, eyeing the annoying seamstress as she led the taller boy onto a stool next to him. The shorter boy stayed close by and eyed Draco for a moment, before turning back to his friend, or possibly brother, as they did look somewhat similar.

"Hello," Draco finally said, noticing the plain black robes they were being fitted for, "Hogwarts students, too?"

"Indeed." The shorter boy answered giving Draco a small smile and nod, while the other boy said nothing, prevented from looking at Draco properly by the way Madam Malkin had him standing, and simply craned his neck as far as she would allow, trying to get a good look at Draco.

"My father's next door buying some books for our manor and mother's up the street looking for a nice place for lunch," Draco said tiredly, although he only suspected that that was what each of his parents were up to. They had been rather secretive of their activities, and he felt that a present was involved somewhere along the line.

"Then I'm going to drag them off to take a look at racing brooms," he added, steering the line of thought to something he felt confident that they'd all share in common, "I don't see why first years at Hogwarts can't bring theirs. I think I'll try and bully father into getting me one when we come back for my school things and I'll try and smuggle it in somehow."

Neither boy reacted much to that so Draco continued on, "Have either of you got your own brooms?"

"I did at one point," the shorter boy commented absently, "But it was a long time ago and I got too busy to replace it when its charm wore off." Meanwhile the taller boy on the stool just stood quietly. Draco decided to press the smaller, far more responsive boy instead.

"Played Quidditch at all when you had it?" Draco asked quickly, hoping for some actual conversation to distract himself from the pain in his feet from standing on the small wooden stool for so long.

"Not really," the boy responded, "I didn't have enough friends to play it properly with," and nodding knowingly at the other boy; he continued, "Harry here was really my only friend for a while now, isn't that right Harry?" Draco could tell the boy was purposely trying to include his friend, but seeing how the other boy didn't seem to want to respond, Draco continued to ignore him.

"Well, I do," he said, hoping that he could at least spark some of the stylish interest in Quidditch that all boys his age ought to share out of these two, "Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house team, and I must say I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?" he added, seeing their mutual disinterest and hastily changing subjects.

"Quite cocky in your abilities aren't you?" the other boy countered, grinning slyly at Draco, "Actually I have a pretty good idea what house I'll be in. But I think I'll wait for the Sorting Hat to decide before I shoot down its suggestion, it's only fair, don't you think?" both Draco and the boy's friend snorted at the bold and slightly sarcastic comment.

Draco was starting to like this boy a bit, as he was much more interesting than the sons of his father's two primary associates: Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. The taller boy on the other hand he wasn't sure about, but he decided he would wait to actually talk to him properly before passing judgment; he was standing at an odd angle to be able to even watch their conversation, let alone participate after all. "Well, no one really knows fully until they get there, do they," he grunted in grudging agreement, "But I know I'll be in Slytherin, all my family has been… can you imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

The shorter boy shrugged. "It would depend I guess, although I doubt either of us will go into Hufflepuff. Were both far too intelligent and cunning to be sorted in with that lot I believe," he replied with a lazy smile. The taller boy, Harry, kept stealing glances between his friend and Draco, and Draco thought he could see a bit of confusion mixed with the nervous fear the boy was displaying.

Draco thought it might be time to bring the conversation out of future events to more current topics. "So, are you two here with anybody?"

"No" the shorter boy responded "Just us two."

"Why is that?" Draco asked, almost genuinely concerned, almost. It wasn't that usual for underage wizards or witches to go anywhere without a parent or some form of guardian around. "Don't your parents care that you're here alone?"

The shorter boy glanced nervously at Harry, and then recovered quickly. "Our parents are dead," he said quietly.

"Faykan…" Harry started warningly but Draco accidentally cut him off in his haste to respond. "Oh I'm sorry to hear that…" He said as sincerely as he could muster, it was only proper after all. Faykan gave him a small smile. "But they were our kind, weren't they?" Draco added hesitantly. He had never really known Muggleborns, and he wasn't sure if his father would approve of making friends with any, even if they were nicer than any children he had interacted with in his life.

Faykan stiffened immediately, the smile frozen in place, "Yes, they were." He said shortly.

Before Draco could continue with his thoughts, Madam Malkin said to Harry with a smile, "Your done dear, you can wait right there while I measure up your friend."

As the two boys switched Draco got a good look at the boy called Harry. He looked thin, and the clothes he was wearing appeared to be at least four sized too large for him, as well as distinctly Muggle in nature.

Before he could say anything else however, Faykan continued the conversation where it left off, "Why did you ask us if our parents were wizarding kind, seems a very rude thing to say."

Draco was taken aback slightly; clearly this boy had a spine larger than his body, if he was talking back to a Malfoy. However seeing how it didn't affect either of the friends, as they had already mentioned that they were also descended from wizards and witches, he answered truthfully, or at least according to the truth that his father had taught him:

"Well, they really shouldn't let the other sort in, you think?" Draco asked, more hesitantly, "They're just not the same; they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, I mean can you imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families… What're your surnames, anyway?" he added that last part just in case they had lied, as he probably would have to introduce them to Father at some point if they became his friends.

Harry looked rather upset at Draco's words, and the abrupt return snipe from Faykan completely caught Draco off guard "Well, to answer your questions in order asked: yes, I do think they should let the 'other' sort in, if what you mean are Half-bloods and Muggleborns… yes, I think their just the same as a Pureblood witch or wizard… yes, I can imagine that they could never have heard of Hogwarts… no, I don't think we should only let the 'Pureblood' families be the only ones with magical learning since they're slowly dying out and their nobility has long since left them... And finally…" he paused and looked at Harry, as though seeking permission.

Harry shrugged in a sheepish sort of way, and Faykan continued vehemently, "I am Faykan, scion of the House of Undol, and he, he is Harry Potter, Ouch!" he declared, jumping as a shocked and quite clearly eavesdropping Madam Malkin accidentally jabbed him hard with a needle she was using to hem the sleeves of his robe.

Draco was thunderstruck, not only did this boy think all his Father's pureblood ideals were rubbish, but he WAS a more than just a pureblood himself, but one of the illustrious Undols, who ancestors reached back father than any family in Britain, and were reported extremely rich and magically powerful. And then there was his friend, his FRIEND who was THE HARY POTTER!

"You're Harry Potter!" Draco said, turning shell-shocked to look at the other boy, his jaw hanging a foot off the floor.

"Yes." Harry replied coolly.

"And," Faykan added, cutting off what Draco was about to say next, "Harry here has grown up with muggles for the last ten years, so what do you say to that Mr. I'm-A-Pureblood-Elitist-Prat-In-The-Making!"

Horrified, Draco started to backpedal like mad, "Well… Um… I…" he stammered, not finding anything he could say that could alleviate the situation. He had merely been stating what he thought was true, but apparently these two heirs of powerful Pureblood families were of a drastically different opinion. He had heard much of the Undol family in stories from his father's school days, and they always tending toward the sides of an argument that were destined, almost as though willed by magic, to succeed.

"It's alright," Faykan said finally. "Firstly, you didn't know, and secondly, it won't matter, since Harry and I will more than likely be in Gryffindor like his parents."

With that Faykan hopped off the stool, as Madam Malkin had just finished with him as well, and the two boys made their way to leave after paying for their robes, which were to be owled to them at a later date.

"Wait, please!" Draco called out after them, backpedaling furiously, but Faykan only sternly replied. "See you at Hogwarts, I suppose…" and walked off.

Draco scowled, angry at himself for messing up trying to make real friends so badly. 'Damn it,' he thought bitterly.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry was really quiet after the whole 'Malkin' event, as Faykan deemed it, as he was still rubbing the spot where she had accidently stabbed him with a sewing pin. He spent a good half hour explaining everything that was talked about inside the store, from Quidditch, which Harry learned was a game played on broomsticks, to Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff, which were three of the four houses at Hogwarts, the last being Ravenclaw.

After meeting the pale pointed-faced boy, Harry decided he didn't like him a whole lot, but Faykan said not to judge him too harshly, as Purebloods unfortunately tended to teach their children to be a bit stuck up and full of themselves, somewhat like Dudley was being raised.

Afterward, they went to a bookshop called Flourish and Blotts and bought all their required books for the year. Faykan literally had to drag Harry away from some of the more advanced spell books, saying he wasn't even close to ready to touch, let alone read them. The two best friends then bought their cauldrons and potion supplies from the Apothecary, including all the ingredients they would need for the entire year. Finally, the two boys wandered over toward the last shop they needed anything from.

The sign above it read: ' _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.,_ ' but before they went in, Harry felt the now very familiar tug on his wrist as Faykan dragged him backwards to a dark shop that said on a sign over it ' _Eeylops Owl Emporium._ '

"Why are we going in here Faykan?" Harry asked, as the list said pets were only optional.

"We're going to go get you your birthday present, of course!" Faykan said excitedly. He pushed Harry inside and flat out ordered him to choose an owl for his gift. Harry, slightly embarrassed, eyed a beautiful snowy owl resting peacefully with its head under its wing. Faykan noticed Harry's looks of wonder as he watched the white bird sleep and poked him in the ribs.

"Is that the one you want Harry?" he quested. Harry wanted to say yes so badly, but he didn't want to make Faykan pay too much just for a simple pet. But, before he could tear his eyes away, Faykan reached over and picked up the cage, carrying it to the front desk and purchased the bird for him. As they left Harry could only stammer his thanks until Faykan stopped him by placing a hand over his mouth.

"Enough Harry, I was more than happy to buy her for you. You're my best friend and I NEVER, EVER want you to think you aren't worth any material possession, provided it's within reasonably limits of one thousand galleons or less." He added with a small chuckle. Harry smiled; Faykan was terribly at jokes sometimes, but he was simply the best, best friend ever.

As they entered Ollivanders minutes later, the two boys heard the tinkling of a bell ring somewhere in the back of the store, and for a moment or two they milled about in the front, neither wanting to really sit on the spindly chair nearby, as it looked really old and fragile, instead setting the cage with Harry's new snowy owl on it. They were both so in awe of the pure sensation of magic around where there were that they didn't notice an old man walk up to the other side of the counter until he cleared his voice, making them jump slightly.

"Good afternoon," he said in a soft voice.

"Hello," said Harry, who was closer to the man than Faykan was.

"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. ' _Those silvery eyes are a bit creepy_ ,' Harry thought. "Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand, eleven inches, pliable, a little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it but it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes. "And that's where..."

Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen and a half inches, yew, powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."

He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Faykan.

"I'm sorry dear boy, but I'm afraid I don't know who you are." Mr. Ollivander said after a long moment, looking greatly troubled, "Who are your parents?"

Clearing his throat, Faykan said "They were Lord Faykan Undol the seventh and his wife, the Lady _Tari_ , sir."

Mr. Ollivander stared at Faykan in the eye for a moment, and then rocked back on his heels slightly, shaking his head. "Hmm, I don't believe your family has ever bought their wands from me before. However, I'll never turn down new business," he said, smiling slightly

"Well, now, Mr. Potter, Mr. Undol. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which are your wand arms?"

"Err, well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.

"Left…" Faykan said confidently.

Ollivander nodded absently, "Hold out your arms. That's it." He measured both Harry and Faykan from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We mainly use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons, but they are only the beginning of the many choices of wand cores. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results using another wizard's wand."

After he measured them in every conceivable way, he finally bustled into the back of his shop, pulling down many different long thin boxes. When he had gathered two or three full armloads onto the front desk, he started opening them one by one and handing the wands to either boy as he rattled off the wood, length, rigidity and core of each wand. What felt like an hour later, Faykan finally had a wand that Mr. Ollivander seemed satisfied with, "Elm and giant eagle feather, eleven inches, quite rigid, good for defensive magic," he had said.

When Faykan waved it as instructed my Mr. Ollivander, a shower of blue, green, and silver sparks came cascading out of the end. Harry on the other hand, took considerably longer until, muttering about tricky customers; Mr. Ollivander pulled out a long dusty box out of the very back of the store, and walked around to stand next to Harry in front of the counter. Pulling out the wand he handed it gingerly to Harry.

Harry took the wand. He felt sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.

Faykan whooped in delight and Mr. Ollivander said "Well, well, well… how curious… how very curious…"

When Harry had asked him what he meant by 'curious' and Mr. Ollivander explained that he could remember every single wand he ever sold, and that the phoenix feather core of Harry's new wand was a brother to the wand that gave him his scar. Since Faykan had already explained about how Harry had received that scar, he couldn't help himself when he muttered "Voldemort."

"We do not speak his name." Mr. Ollivander said, (at that Faykan scoffed loudly but Mr. Ollivander ignored him,) and he explained that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had done great things, terrible to be sure, but nonetheless considerably great things, and that he expected Harry to also be destined for similarly great things in his future.

Harry was quiet for the entire trip back to Mrs. Figg's house in Little Whinging. Faykan didn't disturb him, seeming to know that Harry wanted time to mull over the days many events. As Harry climbed into the second guest room's bed at the Figg residence he couldn't help but wonder why everyone seemed to be afraid of Voldemort's name, except for Faykan of course. He was just thinking about how odd it was for people to be afraid of something as simple as the name of an evil wizard who had been gone for ten years when he finally drifted off to sleep.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead!** **You have been warned!**

 _Oh my where to start... Well, there was a massive reworking of Draco's introduction, as I had always felt that it was something a bit rushed, and far too close to the canon entrance, although I kept a canonical feel to it regardless, there was a lot more of his own thoughts added, as well as a bit more reasoning as to why Draco would be horrified to realize just who he had been talking to, and that they did not share the commonplace Pureblood views._

 _Ollivanders was kept more or less the same, as I saw no real issues with the original. With respects to Harry, the man would have remained close enough to canon to make sense, and Fay's interactions worked well I believe... and just now I realize that I will be referring to myself in the third person technically for the rest of this story... goodie..._

 _Still, keep up those reviews, and mentions scenes in the future that you may want to see reworked, or had some trouble understanding, so that I have note of it when I reach that point. As of right now when I am posting this, I am nearing the end of Book 1 in my editing, so either the end chapters from there or anything past that would be best to mention, although I am not opposed to anything being commented upon, even the weather... Ha, ha, ha... I fire myself for the bad joke..._

 _More to come! Until then my readers. ~F_


	5. Y1-C4: The Road to Hogwarts

_I guess it's been a little while since I posted one of these, but to be honest I hadn't had a lot of time to edit in the midst of everything for the other 2 fics that I regularly post (So much editing to do...) Hopefully, with the advent of summer I will have the time to catch up on all that editing and get back to work on this side project, so yay!...? ~F_

 **Chapter Four:**

 **The Road to Hogwarts**

The last few months before he and Faykan were set to go Hogwarts was probably the best time Harry ever had. Mrs. Figg was far nicer to Harry than he had ever remembered her being; he presumed it was because of Faykan's presence, but at the same time it was rather unusual behavior from an adult to Harry.

At first when he had arrived, Harry was worried about her reaction to all of his and Faykan's magical things that they had bought at Diagon Alley, but when the owls swooped in over the weeks to deliver their new items, she didn't even bat an eye at the events. When Harry eventually brought it up, Faykan told him that she was a squib, a nonmagical child born to magical parents, and thus was quite familiar with their world, although unable to participate fully within it.

All that did was raise more questions in Harry's mind though, mainly as to why the elderly woman had never once told him about his family or tried to contradict anything that the Dursleys had told him his entire life. It also made him somewhat sad, knowing that she had indeed known all these wondrous things, but could take part in them for a lack of the ability to cast spells.

Harry did also wonder why he had never heard of Faykan before from all the years he had been at Mrs. Figg's house. She had shown him enough pictures to have covered her entire family, although they had mostly been of her cats. It left Harry so very confused at all the many secrets people kept keeping from him. But it seemed Mrs. Figg was either unable to unwilling to answer his questions related to that, and when he tried to ask Faykan, the other boy was careful to avoid all inclinations toward the topic.

Faykan had planned out all the time they had during their last two months before school started, primarily setting aside a great deal for both Harry and himself to study their books, and additionally for Harry to practice writing with a real feathered quill, because Muggle pens and pencils tended to react very poorly with the kind of parchment still used in the wizarding world. It seemed to serve Faykan's purpose of avoiding certain questions quite well, as their schedule was all but full from day to day.

When they did take time off to relax from studying, Harry liked to take his new owl, which he chose to name Hedwig, outside and watch her fly around. Faykan always came with him, and occasionally brought his pet raven, Roac, to join Hedwig in the air. These moments were always very peaceful for Harry, watching the two birds dip and dive through the evening air, or just listening to random stories from Fay about this or that magical thing.

Harry woke up extremely early the morning of September the first, and was far too excited to go back to sleep. As he crept out of his room he collided into Faykan, almost knocking them both to the floor. Squinting in the early morning light, Harry realized that the other boy had clearly awoken early as well and was about to open Harry's door himself when he had emerged.

"Can't sleep?" Faykan asked.

"No, what about you?" Harry replied, grinning.

"Na, I'm way too nervous," Faykan said, smiling back at him. "Get dressed, I'll go and see about getting us some breakfast."

Several long minutes later, Harry having had difficulty deciding whether to wear regular Muggle clothing or Wizards robes, (finally settling for Muggle attire until he and Faykan got onto the train,) he trudged down to the kitchen where the smells of the sausages and eggs that were awaiting him at the table. Neither Faykan nor Harry spoke while they ate, and afterward they returned to their rooms to finish packing up the last of their things.

When they finally returned, Mrs. Figg was sitting at the table with a cup of tea sitting in front of her, while she read the wizarding newspaper, ' _The Daily Prophet._ '

Mrs. Figg had been rather strange the entire time Harry had been in her home with Fay, rather aloof and glazed eyed, often just leaving the two boys to their own devises. Faykan had said that she was rather fond of letting him do as he pleased, so long as he didn't get into too much trouble.

"Morning, boys," Mrs. Figg said happily as they entered, "just let me finish the paper, and we'll pack up the car and be on our way to King's Cross."

The car ride went by rather quickly; at least Harry thought so. Faykan helped Harry pack their trunks and bird cages onto two carts and Mrs. Figg waved to them as they entered the station before she drove off. They walked briskly until they reached the small area between platforms nine and ten, where Faykan stopped, looking around with a puzzled and annoyed expression.

"Uh oh," he said slowly, "Not to worry you, but I believe I've forgotten how we get onto the platform, Harry."

Naturally, Harry started to panic slightly at that, until both boys turned as they overheard a nearby plump, red haired woman talking to a group of four boys as they walked toward the barrier between the platforms.

The only reason they even noticed was because she had mentioned the word Muggle, and they noticed that they had similar trunks and even owl cages. The boys watched as the family, all with bright red hair, walked straight through the solid wall between the platforms one by one, disappearing into it as if it wasn't there.

"Ah ha," Faykan exclaimed, "that's how, can't believe I forgot something so simple; let's go, Harry." They started toward the wall they saw the family disappear into, slightly jostled by the crowd as they passed with their laden carts. Harry was slightly worried by the quite seemingly solid brick pillar, but followed behind Faykan quietly until they were right next to the wall.

With a little encouragement from his friend, Harry leaned against the wall, and was shocked as he stumbled backward through it, pulling his cart behind him. Turning around to look behind him, his eyes met a scarlet steam engine waiting next to a platform packed with people. Someone nudged him from behind, and Harry moved as Faykan came through the illusory wall, grinning like a madman.

Faykan led Harry down the platform until they found an empty compartment, where they stowed their pets and were just lifting Harry's trunk onto the train when one of the red haired boys they'd followed through the barrier came and started to help with the trunk, as they were struggling with its bulk.

"Hey, you two look like you could use a hand. Oof!" his face turned beet red with the strain of lifting Harry's trunk, "What you got in this thing, bricks?" The boy joked good-naturedly.

Between the three of them they finally managed to get Harry's trunk, followed by Faykan's and the other boy's, into the empty compartment. Panting for breath, the three boys collapsed onto the seats, and Harry brushed his sweaty bangs away from his eyes.

"Hey, what's that on your head?" said the taller, red haired boy, once he had finally regained sufficient oxygen to speak.

"Oh, it's nothing." Harry said, moving his hair back to hide the scar the boy partially saw. He wasn't really in the mood for people gawking at the relic of his parent's murder.

Before the boy could press Harry any further, Faykan interjected, "So, who are you then?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm Ron. Ron Weasley." The boy said holding his hand out towards Faykan, who shook it.

"Faykan Undol." He replied. Ron then turned to Harry, who smiling, took the offered hand and shook it formally. "And I'm Harry. Harry Potter."

Ron's eyes widened in awe as his eyes jumped from Harry's hand to his forehead and back again. Harry sighed inwardly as the boy put two and two together in a flash

"Then that's where…" he said pointing at his own forehead timidly.

"Yeah it is, but he doesn't remember anything about it." Faykan said, answering for Harry, who smiled appreciatively. He really didn't want to answer all the very personal questions that Ron probably wanted to ask. Momentarily, Harry winced as he realized that the same sort of reception was bound to come up over and over again once they reached Hogwarts as well.

"Oh… guess that's probably for the best though, you think?" Ron said, slightly disappointed.

Harry and Ron then spent the next hour questioning each other about the magical world, and about living with Muggles. Faykan sat quietly, letting Harry lead the conversation, and together they learned all about Ron's five older brothers: Charlie, Bill, Fred, George, and Percy, who all had either left Hogwarts or was an upper years there. Faykan finally chimed in, asking about the rat that Ron had pulled out of a pocket midway into his and Harry's conversation.

"Oh, this is Scabbers, by the way. He used to be Percy's rat, but he got an owl when he was made a prefect this year, so I got him. He rather useless though…"

Harry had noticed that all of Ron's things looked rather worn and secondhand, but didn't comment on it. He listened as Faykan told Ron about how he and Harry had met, and their time in Diagon Alley.

"Can you believe that his family never told him about his parents or him being a wizard or Voldemort or anything?" Faykan was saying, when Ron gasped loudly.

"What?" said Harry, surprised at the boy's reaction to a rather benign segment of the tale.

"He said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron said, sounding both shocked and impressed at the same time.

Faykan just rolled his eyes. "Honestly, it's not like he's the scariest Dark Lord who ever lived, or even the most powerful. Not saying his name is just stupid."

Just about that time a witch pushing a cart stopped outside their compartment, slid open the door, and said to the compartment at large, "Anything off the trolley dears?"

Faykan leaped to his feet and before Harry or Ron could say anything, walked over to the witch and purchase some of everything on the cart for the three of them. Turning back with his arms full of a plethora of sweets that Harry had never seen before, Faykan tipped them on the empty seat next to Ron and gestured for Harry to pick what he pleased. "On me, friends," he said.

Harry leaned over to get a good look at some of the most strangest candies he'd ever seen. The three boys enjoyed picking their way through the pile of sweets. Harry really enjoyed the Pumpkin Pasties the best, and got an 'Albus Dumbledore' card from a Chocolate Frog, which was intriguing enough until the man's portrait decided to leave rather abruptly. Ron laughed when Faykan made a face after pouring a rather large handful of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans into his mouth all at once and Harry had to slap his back a few times until he could breathe again.

Faykan finally suggested that it was about time that they changed into their robes, so they wouldn't have to do it at the last minute. As Harry was pulling the robes over his head, he heard Ron give another cry of surprise.

"Bloody hell! What's that on your back?!" the red haired boy was shouting.

Harry pulled his head through the neck hole of his robes in time to see Ron pointing, horror struck, at Faykan's bare back, as he'd just removed his shirt. Faykan's back was incredibly pale, but traveling down on either side of his spine were grayish-black spiraling lines, almost like twin intersecting snakes.

The lines circled down both his arms, went up to his neck, and disappeared below the waistline of his trousers where Harry could only assume that they continued down much farther. Within the lines seemed to be printed letters, so small and chained together in a script that Harry had never seen before, but they seemed to shimmer with a sort of familiar light…

Harry wondered why he hadn't ever noticed that they were there before, even slightly. Then it occurred to him that he had never seen Faykan not wearing long sleeve shirt with a high collar before, even in his pajamas. They didn't seem so bad to Harry, just a bit strange, yet oddly familiar at the same time, but assuredly not worth the entire ruckus that Ron was making over them.

"Hmm," Faykan said, without any concern. "Oh those, they're just family tattoos that were put on me when I was little, my father and grandfather had similar ones also."

Ron still looked uncomfortable and slightly nauseated at the sight of the tattoos, and Harry wondered if the red haired boy knew something more than what Faykan was letting on, but if he did, he didn't comment futher. Faykan simply shrugged and pulled his robes on to hide them, but Harry could still see the tips poking up on either side of his neck now that he knew what to look for, due to the cut of the robes.

Just then the compartment door slid open and a round faced boy came in with a bushy haired girl next to him. She was already wearing her robes and looked very concerned.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a rather bossy sort of voice, and slightly larger than average front teeth.

Harry and Ron shook their heads, but Faykan had his back turned to her as he was pulling out his wand. The girl, noticing the wand in his hand, ignored both Harry and Ron and focused intently on Faykan.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." She asked, or demanded, instantly, stepping further into the compartment.

Faykan turned to look at her, slightly puzzled, but recovered quickly.

"Actually no, I wasn't, but if you insist," he said waving the wand in his hand, " _Accio_ Toad!" A second later, a small toad zoomed out of the corridor, past Neville and into Faykan's opposite hand.

"Trevor!" Neville cried, holding out his hand for his pet. The girl looked both impressed and slightly shocked. "But, wasn't a summoning charm… That's far beyond our year, isn't it? How could you possibly know how to do that level of magic? You've got to be only a first year yourself, from the lack of house colors on your robes… Oh I knew that the extra books I bought weren't going to be enough to catch up to everyone else." The girl plopped down and Harry wondered if she would actually start to cry.

"Whoa! Calm down, um, Miss…" Faykan said, sitting next to her and looking very uncomfortable at trying to comfort the hysterical girl.

"Hermione Granger." She sniffed between her fingers.

"…Granger," Faykan finished, before continuing what he had intended to say, "Your reasoning is quite unfounded. I'm actually extremely advanced when it comes to magical learning, thanks to my parent's rigorous training, but I can honestly say that you definitely will not be behind in the classes." Faykan assured her softly, patting the girl's arm.

She sniffed once, and wiped her eyes on her robes, although Harry still wasn't sure if there were tears there or not. "I'm sorry, I'm being utterly silly; of course you're right." She said at last, standing up and adjusting her robes. "So, what are your names?" she said, more curiously, looking between Faykan, Harry and Ron.

"I'm Faykan Undol," Faykan started, "he's Ron Weasley, and he's Harry Potter." He said pointing to each in turn.

"Are you really?" Hermione said, turning to Harry, eyes widening and starting to speak very fast. "I know all about you, of course. You in three different history books I got for background reading. You see, neither of my parents is magical at all. It was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased. Do any of you know what house you'll be in? I hope I'm in Gryffindor, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be so bad. Anyway we'd better go; I expect we'll be arriving soon." She turned to leave, but quickly turned back to Ron and said, "You've got dirt on your nose, did you know? Just there," she said indicating a spot on her own nose. Ron scowled, but rubbed at the spot vigorously after she and Neville left the compartment.

The three boys looked at each other after she left, shrugged in unison and settled back down to wait out the rest of the trip to Hogwarts, but not a few minutes later their compartment door opened again, and the same pale faced boy that Harry and Faykan had seen in Madam Malkin's shop came in, flanked by two of the largest eleven year olds that Harry had ever seen.

"So it's true then, what the rest of the train is saying," the pale boy said. "You both _are_ in this compartment."

"Clearly." Harry said shortly, really getting tired of all the interruptions and not wanting in the slightest to speak with this boy again. even Ron looked clearly put out, and he hadn't had the experience that both Harry and Faykan had had with this other boy.

The boy turned to his companions and pointedly told them to wait outside. They obeyed quickly and closed the door behind them. The boy turned back, suddenly looking nervous, and shifted on his feet several times before finally blurting out, "Look, I'm really sorry for what happened in Diagon Alley. I didn't mean to insult either of you. Had I known who either of you where I probably wouldn't have even said any those things."

The boy had a pleading look in his eyes and Harry could tell he was being sincere, or at least trying his hardest to be. Faykan looked as though he wanted to forgive the boy, or at least hear him out, but he glanced at Harry, saying with his eyes that it was his decision and his alone.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco watched as Harry Potter sat there with his friends, Faykan and a red haired boy Draco was certain could only be a Weasley. ' _Oh goodie, now I'll have to put up with a Weasel if I want to befriend these two._ ' Summoning up the last of his courage, Draco let out a short breath and plunged on. "Could we please just start over?" he pleaded, and noticed that Harry was eyeing his two bodyguards who were standing outside the door, buffering anyone away from the compartment by cracking their knuckles menacingly.

"Oh, those are Crabbe and Goyle," Draco said hesitantly, "And my name is Draco, Draco Malfoy." The red haired boy coughed, but it sounded like he was trying to hide a snigger. Draco's cheeks flushed slightly, but he tried his best to ignore him. Harry looked like he wasn't actually considering his offer, and Draco almost was almost about to turn to leave dejectedly when Faykan spoke up.

"Malfoy…Malfoy, where have I heard that name before…" he said, tapping his chin in thought. "Oh, I remember my father told me about a Lucius Malfoy he went to Hogwarts with. Wouldn't that be your dad, Draco?"

"Yes, actually," Draco said proudly, puffing out his chest a little, a measure of pride returning.

"Hey, Ron, didn't you say that your dad and Lucius Malfoy didn't get along too well?" Faykan said to the red haired boy, confirming to Draco that he was indeed one of Arthur Weasley's many progeny.

"Yea," Ron said with a smirk, "my dad said all the Malfoys are nothing but slimy dark wizards, and that nothing good ever comes from associating with them." Draco balled up his fists in anger, but held his tongue, knowing that the Weasley boy was only trying to goad him into doing something that would tip him out of Potter's favor. His jaw dropped when Faykan spoke again.

"Now, now, Ron, don't judge the sons for the sins of their forefathers. I'm sure an eleven-year-old boy couldn't possibly be a dark wizard, even if they have a fair bit of bad manners passed down…" Turning to Harry, Faykan continued, "I think we should forgive him and forget about what had previously happened, what do you think Harry?"

Harry sat silently for a long moment, and Draco started to sweat, before the other boy finally nodded in agreement. Draco almost let out a whoop of pleasure, but kept his composure. Sitting down at Faykan's request, they started chatting about what they could expect to encounter during their years at Hogwarts. When the subject turned to Quidditch, even Ronald finally came out of his silent angry shell and added in his two knuts. Draco noticed that Harry just sat quietly, listening to the by-play of his three friends, or sort of friend in Draco's case, and he nudged Faykan to point it out.

"Hey Harry," Faykan started, "didn't you know your father played Chaser for the Gryffindor team when he was at Hogwarts?" Harry's face lit up at that.

"Really?" he said in awe.

"Yeah," Faykan replied, grinning, "He was a natural flyer from what I had heard my dad say. They were at school for only three years together, but he said that he hadn't seen a better flyer in all his years at Hogwarts."

Harry looked like was going to press Faykan for all the information he knew about his dad, when a voice echoed throughout the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time." The voice continued to say that they were expected to leave their luggage on the train, as it would be brought up separately for them.

"So," Faykan said at last as the train started slowing down, "I think we should agree that no matter what houses were put in, we should always be at least friendly toward each other." Taking a long look at both Ron and Draco, he continued, "Also, I think we should not allow past events or family matters dissuade us from doing what we see fit concerning what happens at Hogwarts, agreed?"

Draco saw Harry nodding almost immediately, so he immediately accepted the terms also. Turning to Ronald, who had a small scowl on his face directly at Draco, Faykan poked him slightly in the stomach, and he jumped. "Oh, alright then..." He said finally, and they all shook hands on it.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The four boys crammed the last of the sweets into their pockets and left the compartment, to join the throng of students who were exiting the train.

"I'll see you when we get inside." Draco called, moving over to Crabbe and Goyle, and they slipped into the crowd back along the train toward other compartments, presumably to get some of their own things before disembarking.

Harry shivered in the cold night air as they left the train. Then Faykan pointed out a lamp that came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a loud booming voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All Firs' years over to me!" A literal giant of a man came wading through the sea of students, and Faykan, Ron, and Harry scrambled over to look up at him. The giant man beamed down when he saw Harry.

"An' here's Harry!" the giant said "Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby! Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."

"And, who might you be?" Faykan said, slightly defensive, as he moved to stand next to Harry.

"True, I haven't introduced meself." The giant man said, " Name's Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts, an' a good friend o' Lily an' James."

Hagrid broke off abruptly, called out again for the first years to follow him, and led them all down a narrow path to the edge of a great black lake. Faykan talked with Hagrid quietly as they walked, questioning him about his job as gamekeeper, and a few other things. Hagrid had all the children get in groups of four and pile into about a dozen little boats that were by the shore once they arrived at the massive lake partway between the train station and a large valley where Harry presumed the school was located within.

Faykan, Ron and Harry climbed into a boat together, and were soon followed by the bushy haired Hermione. Harry saw Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and another rather weedy-looking boy in another boat nearby. The unknown boy was staring at them with unnerving interest. After everyone was seated, Hagrid's loud voice boomed out the command for the boats to move forward across the lake all on their own.

Everyone was quiet as the boats rounded a corner, and many people gasped as the magnificent castle drifted into view. They all got out when the boats reached a small harbor, directly at the foot of the castle's main entrance, and they followed the bobbing light of Hagrid's lamp around the parameter until they reached the huge oak front doors.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts School, sat at the staff table in the Great Hall, idly listening to the stuttering rambles of one Quirinus Quirrell, the _current_ Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. Snape did not like Quirrell in the slightest, even less so than he did most of the others he worked with, teachers or students, but as the Head of Slytherin House he constantly strived to maintain a cool and professional composure when dealing with his fellow staff members.

Thankfully, Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall finally brought the first year students into the Great Hall, and the babbling turban-headed man was finally silenced, allowing Severus to watch The Sorting without distraction.

Severus scanned the lines of approaching students, looking for potential new Slytherins, and one other in particular. He found Draco Malfoy almost immediately, his godson's blond hair shining in the candlelight like a beacon, but Severus paused at the sight of the two black haired boys that Draco was walking with. They definitely were not the youngest members of the Crabbe and Goyle families, as he had assumed would be flanking the son of their father's associate, Lucius Malfoy.

However, these two boys both struck Severus as familiar regardless, which was why he had paused to observe them so intently. One of the boys looked the spitting image of his old nemesis James Potter, and Severus could only presume that the boy must be the _great and famous_ Harry Potter, the Boy-who-lived. Severus smirked inwardly; he would enjoy reenacting a small taste of what the boy's father had done to him while he was in school, but only if the boy was as arrogant as Severus guessed he must be.

As Severus continued to scan the rest of the twin lines of students, his eyes kept being draw back to the second raven haired boy between Potter and Draco. ' _Could it be_ ,' Snape wondered. The boy looked exactly like his old friend who had left Hogwarts in Severus' third year, much to his great disappointment. He decided to watch this group of boys during their sorting, thinking that it might prove somewhat interesting. He continued observing the boy as the new first years stood in the center isle of the Hall during the hat's silly little song, and in doing so Severus noted immediately how confident this child was acting as he chatted quietly with Potter and Draco during the Sorting Hat's song.

The boy seemed completely calm, or at least portraying a strong appearance of calmness, which was odd considering that every other child, even Draco who was trained to control his appearance, looked ready to bolt for the door at the first loud noise. The look of this child almost screamed in Severus' mind that he was destined for Slytherin house, and Severus hoped that that would be the outcome, as he would relish the chance to ask the boy about his family.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry stood nervously as the hat was placed on student after student, calling out one of the four houses each time. Draco was right when he said he was going to be put into Slytherin, because the hat had barely touched him when it cried out the name of the house. Harry's heart hammered when his name was finally called. As the hat was dropped on his head, terrifying thoughts kept plaguing what was left of his confidence, which Faykan had been keeping built up during the song. His last sight before the hat covered his eyes was Faykan giving him a 'thumbs up' from the midst of the crowd of waiting first years, then blackness.

Harry almost gasped when the sorting hat's voice sounded inside his head.

" _Hmm, difficult, very difficult… Plenty of courage, I see... Not a bad mind either... There's talent, my goodness yes, and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that is interesting… but where to put you… Not Hufflepuff, your talents wouldn't be tested enough, but sadly Ravenclaw would drown you with your lack of motivation, no offence my boy... Now Slytherin, that's a thought... You could be great you know, and Slytherin would help you on the way, no doubt about that... Hmm, but you seem too honorable to wish to use their ways to the fullest benefit... So, it had better be_ … GRYFFINDOR!"

The hall exploded as the hat shouted the last word for them all to hear! Harry took off the hat and made his way to the Gryffindor table, staggering slightly from getting constant slaps on the back and vigorous handshakes from his new housemates along the way.

When Harry sat down, he turned back to face the Head Table, and watched as the last four new first years yet to be sorted. Ron looked like a bundle of nerves, standing between Faykan and a tall black boy who had just been called. Harry looked at Faykan and noticed that despite his cool front, he was actually mildly nervous. Not nearly so much as Ron, but just enough that Harry's three odd years of knowing the boy allowed him to see in the way Faykan's mouth twitched every few moments. Then, at last, it was time:

"Undol, Faykan!" McGonagall called, and he walked forward and let her drop the sorting hat upon his head.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

When the young black haired boy came forward, Severus Snape almost choked on the drink he was sipping at the name of Faykan Undol. Severus stole a glance at Dumbledore to see if the older man had reacted as well, but the Headmaster was watching with almost a bored expression, quite the opposite of what Severus was feeling. Perhaps that made sense, as the Headmaster had rarely taken interest in those from Slytherin house.

Still, in Severus' mind there was no doubt of the boy's parentage remained, as he had known a personal named Faykan Undol when he was at school, this boy's father most likely, but the family had been reportedly killed off during the Dark Lord's rise to power.

There was no way that an heir had survived, not without someone like Dumbledore being aware of it. Glancing at Albus again, Severus wondered if the aged Headmaster realized any of this or why he didn't have the decency to at least look surprised. It couldn't be a lack of care regarding the matter, as the man was decent to all he encountered in any favorable light, regardless of their background.

The hall sat quietly while the hat perched silently upon the boy's head. Finally, a short gap of time that felt like more like five minutes due to the silence that reigned after the hat was placed on the child; it began to call out, "SLYTH…" but stopped abruptly.

Undol's face couldn't be seen, because the hat was draped over the young boy's head so far only his jaw was visible, but from his angle behind and far to the right of the stool Severus could see that it had clenched tightly when the hat had started to cry out. There was a deafening silence as the entire hall watched what felt like the longest sorting that anyone could remember.

Whether it was another few moments, or nearly twenty minutes later, no one could tell, but the gathered hall held their collective breath until the hat finally sighed and called out in a tired and gruff voice, "Fine you extremely stubborn one, GRYFFINDOR!"

Snape was as shocked at the rest of the hall, and somewhat irritated. Never in all his years at Hogwarts, learning or teaching, had anyone managed to force the sorting hat to change its mind once it had selected a house. Undol had managed to slip away from being placed in Slytherin, but why? What tiny hope Severus had had to talk one on one with the boy was dashed in one selfish, and quite Gryffindor-esk, move.

But even more worrisome Severus discovered, as the boy yanked the hat off his head and dropped it carelessly on the stool, was that the Potion's Master could tell from the boy's face that he not only had changed the hat's mind, but had _meant_ to do it. Could the boy have actually known what the hat was going to do? And if so, what else were those of Hogwarts to expect of this young boy?

Shooting another look at the Headmaster, who was now also watching the boy behind those obnoxious twinkling eyes, Severus could tell that his mentor's curiosity had been peaked, and that he was at the same time plotting out his little war with the Dark Lord, factoring in a possible new piece on his side of the chess board of Great Britain.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You have been warned!**

 _Firstly, I wanted to put a slight bit more emphasis in Mrs. Figg. I truly felt that at this point in the original, as well as later on in the beginning of the 2nd book, that I more or less brushed her aside, which to be fair she isn't terribly important, but still. It's a realistic thought that she would come up at least once in a while, especially with the supposed family relation that she has with Faykan, so I plan to rectify that and restore some semblance of 'hey what about... so and so,' long and short, she was enchanted to believe everything that Fay told her regarding his relative status, as he knew that she was one of Dumbledore's spies, and not doing a terribly good job of it either... I never felt that was perfectly sent across, but there you have it. hopefully, with the other additions relative to her that will become more clear. Reason being, it ties back into the plot of 'Faykan isn't telling Harry the whole truth, and he's figuring that out little by little.' and I felt it was a missed opportunity for added emphasis._

 _Next, Fay forgot where the platform was? it has been many years since he went to Hogwarts, you know, the two other times, and a lot happened in between then and now, or did he sense the Weasleys and want to avoid them at that particular time...? You make the call!_

 _No, this story was never meant to be a bash on the Weasleys, (nor a bash on Dumbledore for that matter, but the cards fell where they lay, and he made himself out to be a bit of a antagonist all on his own) as many are probably curious as to why I never wrote from Ron's perspective. Honestly, I had enough main male characters, and Ron never particularly interested me as having a unique perspective... in this story. for those who are reading Power of the Dark Side/Rise of Darth Veneficus, it hasn't happened yet, but Ron will be making a comeback in what I feel is the most poetically right way possible. But anyway, I just felt that already using Harry and Draco as the main character male protagonists kinda shunted Ron to a backseat, and he never became more important till book 5, and then only marginally. just the way it went I guess, don't hate him, just didn't overwhelmingly like him either._

 _Draco's supposed 180 degree spin from canon, well, to be fair, a spoiled, probably loner of a 11 year old going to school for the first time, away from parents and usual comforts, naturally the first thing they want to seek out in peer acceptance. Crabbe and Goyle don't really count, as they're 'friends' because their fathers are friends, so when the opportunity to make his own presented itself (back in Madam Malkin's) draco tried his hand, and was burned, realizing that the way he was raised isn't the end-all of everything good and pureblooded. I feel that that would have intrigued him, especially as the Undol family are supposedly a well known and powerful bloodline, why exactly they think that way, not that he necessarily agrees, and you can tell throughout the story that Draco always has a rather different idea about how things work until late in the game, but for now that shaking up of the foundation that was canon Draco with someone he supposed was an equal would, in my humble opinion, be enough to set him on a different path, and once rewarded with real friends, become a permanent change in him._

 _Hermione insert, yeah, somewhat canon and what not, but I had to do something with that scene, as she wouldn't have left them alone in any other scenario I projected..._

 _Hagrid, much the same... Hagrid is hard to write, and I don't mean just the accent (although it most certainly doesn't help) the man is too kind and generous, and altogether star struck with Dumbledore to really do much, and contact with him just tends to always fall back squarely into canon for me. maybe it's a bit lazy but the character just didn't pan out to be as useful when Faykan is already three steps ahead on a lot of things, and can just as easily steer Harry in the right direction, although I wasn't going to deny his inclusion and just write him out, so I did try to make Hagrid work, but, it was what it was..._

 _And yes, people may notice that I added a bit from the beginning of the next chapter to the end here, and that is because the next one got a massive extension, which pushed my normal boundary of 13 MS Word pages per chapter (roughly 6-7k words) and I felt it would be better to share the extra across multiple chapters rather than have one massive one smashed between relatively short ones on either side._

 _Ahhh Snape, probably one of my favorite canon characters across the board of all my stories, so suitable to subtle shifts in behavior, and eventually development in any direction I wish, protagonist, antagonist, helpful, hindering, you name it, with the right twist, he can do it, and do it well. I've actually rarely seen a badly made Snape in any work of fanfiction... barring romance of any sort, as I refuse to read that..._

 _But yeah, quite an ramble on this one... until next time, enjoy! ~F_


	6. Y1-C5: First Week of Term

_Many thanks to those who reviewed, both old hats who have been with me since the beginning of the original, and those who are just starting with the series. Both perspectives have been incredibly useful throughout the current chapter that I am chugging through, which unfortunately needed quite a deal of work. To those specifically who are awaiting the supposed trope of the Wizarding World cast entering Middle Earth and participating with events there, I am sorry to disappoint you now and say that that is not the specific direction this story will be going, however if you bide your time a bit longer, I might surprise you with something even more refreshing. ~F_

 **Chapter Five:**

 **First Week of Term**

Harry clapped loudly for both Faykan and Ron, who had also been put into Gryffindor very quickly after Faykan's extremely long time under the hat. The other first year Gryffindors had all given Faykan long looks that could have been interpreted as awe, or even fear. Faykan wouldn't tell Harry what had gone on during his lengthy sorting, but whatever it was, it had left him slightly drained, if the slight loss of color in his face was any indication.

After the last boy, Blaise Zabini, had been sorted into Slytherin; Professor Dumbledore stood up and gave the shortest and most humorous speech Harry had ever heard in his life: 'Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!'

Both Harry and Faykan laughed aloud at the silliness of the words, however Faykan's laughter lasted far longer than Harry's, who wasn't completely sure whether the Headmaster was being serious or not.

"He's not mad is he?" Harry asked the people around him.

"Mad?" said Percy, Ron's older brother who was a Gryffindor Prefect. "Well a bit, but he's still a genius. He's widely considered the best wizard in the world."

Faykan mumbled something then, and all Harry heard was something like: "at least _this_ _part_ of the world," but at the same instant, the golden plates in front of all of them magically filled with every type of food that Harry could ever imagine. Hunger overpowered them all then, despite the candy and snacks from the train ride, and they stopped all conversation to dig in.

As they ate, Harry stole a short glance over at the Slytherin table, and saw Draco among his new housemates. The blond boy gave him a brisk nod in acknowledgement before returning to chatting with those sitting around him.

"Don't suppose it'll be easy to spend time with Draco, will it?" Harry whispered to Faykan and Ron.

"Hopefully not…" Ron started to say, before Faykan jabbed him hard in the ribs, "Ouch! I mean sadly… very sadly," he corrected, looking appropriately rebuked.

"Gryffindors and Slytherins don't _traditionally_ get along too well," Faykan explained in a quiet voice, "but we will have some classes with them and there's always the weekends that we can spend time catching up with him."

"Oh, good, I guess." Harry sighed in relief. He wasn't looking forward to not seeing one of his newest friends for over a week, but it was better than losing him entirely, right?

After the magnificent feast, and the last of the desserts had finally disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood up again and starting to expound upon the new school year's announcements; explaining that the forest on the edge of the grounds was off limits, also that magic was not to be used in between classes, "and finally," he said gravely, "I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Dumbledore added as a last minute notice.

A few people laughed, but Harry didn't since the news wasn't very funny to him. Faykan looked slightly concerned when the Headmaster had mentioned it, but he wouldn't comment when Harry asked what the matter was.

Finally all the students were dismissed to go to the respective house dormitories, and Percy Weasley stood to lead the first years out of the Great Hall and up the grand marble staircase. Harry felt very tired so he didn't pay much attention to where they were being led, until he crashed into Faykan's back when they abruptly stopped.

A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.

"Peeves, show yourself" Percy called out.

A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered. There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross- legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

Percy started arguing with the little man, threatening him with telling the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, of his wrongdoing, when Faykan walked up to stand next to Percy, glaring daggers at the poltergeist.

"Oooooooh!" Peeves said, with an evil cackle. "An Ickle Firstie! What fun!"

He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked, except Faykan, who simple waved his wand and called out " _Auta a' kai._ "

Peeves barely dodged the bolt of light that shot from Faykan's wand, screaming as he spun off course, and stared at Faykan with wide, scared eyes. All pretense of mocking fun lost, Peeves spoke softly, "He speaks words of long lost power… what is it, looks like a little Firstie, but couldn't be…"

"Peeves," Faykan commanded, "Depart this castle, and never return." The roof shook as Faykan spoke, and Peeves screamed again, and flew away, straight up and out of the ceiling. Some of the first years scrambled to the windows just in time to see the small ghost sailing over the forest.

"How… H-how did you do that…?" Percy stammered, staring wide eyed at Faykan.

Faykan smirked, "My father didn't like Peeves much, and had made a special spell to evict him from the castle. I…" he paused as he saw everyone staring at him in the same slack jawed wonder. "…I just found it in a book with a brief explanation…" he added, turning slightly pink, before turning back to the Prefect, and gesturing to Percy to remove his mouth from the floor and lead them on, finally returning to walk with Harry, head slightly down, trying to avoid more attention.

Percy hesitantly returned to leading the first years to the tower, shooting the occasional glace back at Faykan, regaining his confidence when they arrived at their destination and were standing in front of a large painting of a very fat woman in a pink dress, who asked clearly for a password, which Percy clearly stated for them all to hear. The portrait then swung forward and they all stepped through it into the Gryffindor common room.

After giving the first years the directions to where their dormitories were, Percy and the rest of the first year boys went up a spiral staircase to find, at the very top room, an oak door with a plaque reading. ' _First Years_ ' Inside were six four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains, each with their individual trunks awaiting them at the foot.

Harry, Ron, Faykan, and the three other Gryffindor boys; Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnegan were far too tired to chat, so they all collapsed into their respective beds after changing into pajamas and immediately went to sleep.

But unfortunately, the next day didn't go too well for either Faykan or Harry, as the information of what Faykan had done to Peeves had somehow traveled the entire school that night and Harry being… well… Harry Potter. It started in the morning as the first years were getting ready for the day, when the other three boys in their dorm noticed Faykan's tattoos. Harry and Ron laughed when the other three boys gaped at Faykan's back when they thought he wasn't looking.

Harry personally wasn't surprised in the least to find that Faykan's strange marks went the entire length on his legs to his ankles as well. Fortunately, Neville, Dean, Ron, nor Seamus appeared to have the nerve to ask Faykan about them, so Harry chose to not pay it any mind as well. And the strange looks remained on both Harry and his best friends as they left Gryffindor tower for breakfast.

"Those two, next to the tall kid with the red hair..." the whispers usually started, along with pointing in their direction through the crowded corridors. "The two black haired boys?" others would ask. "Did you hear what he did?" they would ask, in reference to Faykan, or "Did you see his scar?" they would say, pointing awkwardly at Harry. that one most of all irritated him.

Soon enough the whispers were starting to get to Harry, but Faykan just put an arm around him and murmured in his ear that he'd better get used to it, because they weren't going to just go away because he didn't like it. That really didn't help Harry much, but it still felt slightly better that Faykan and Ron were both with him the entire day to help shield him from the worst of the attention.

Harry had been worried that they would get lost for sure in the gigantic castle, but it seemed that Faykan had a powerful sense of direction, as well as a knack for finding hidden things, because not only did they make it down to the Great Hall on time, but they had used several secret passages that Harry or Ron would have never noticed otherwise unless Faykan had pointed them out to them as they passed.

When they finished eating, Professor McGonagall came around the Gryffindor table and handed them all their class schedules. Confirming that theirs were all the same (Faykan had mentioned that they would be identical until about third year,) both Hary and Ron happily followed Faykan and his rather excellent mental map of the castle up to the History of Magic classroom for their first lessons in wizarding studies.

Harry had almost jumped out of his skin when their ghost teacher, Professor Binns, glided right through the chalkboard and abruptly began his lecture in such a sad, monotone voice that it almost had two thirds of the class asleep at their desks immediately. The only people who seemed to be immune was the girl from the train, Hermione Granger, and Faykan. Harry was about to fall asleep himself, when a bit of parchment fluttered in front of his nose. Grabbing it he read Faykan's narrow handwriting:

' _Boring enough is it? The gamekeeper, Hagrid, invited me over to his house on the grounds Friday afternoon, would you like to come with me?_ ' it read.

Harry quickly wrote a reply of, ' _I'd love to_ ,' on the back and passed the parchment back to his best friend. They continued to write back and forth to each other the rest of the class, earning a handful of glares from Hermione, who was seated directly behind them. She didn't say anything to them however, at least until after the lesson was over.

"You are aware, that you won't be able to get away with passing notes in other classes, aren't you?" she said, with an air of superiority.

"Naturally, but since all of Binns' information is as wrong as he is dead, what's the point of paying attention in there?" Faykan countered, earning several sniggers from the surrounding first years.

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Faykan held up his hand, "Were not going to do it in all our classes Hermione, and why do you even care? It's not like we were disturbing you, were we?"

She finally huffed irritably and walked away from them, making sure to sit quite far from them once they all arrived in the Charms classroom for the next class.

Professor Flitwick was a tiny wizard who stood on a pile of books to see over his own desk. At the start of class he read off the roll, and when he reached Harry's, he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight behind his desk.

Later on, in Transfiguration, the boys learned why Professor McGonagall was not a teacher to cross, which they had learned from Ron's brother Percy the previous night at the feast, when he pointed out each teacher to them.

She gave the entire class a stern talking to the very first lesson. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts; anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

She then, after a very showy display of transfiguration by turning her desk into a pig and back, set them all to work trying to change a match into a pin after copying down a lot of rather complicated-looking notes. By the end of the lesson, Hermione had been the only person, aside from Faykan, who made any difference to her match. Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had turned silver and slightly pointy.

She gave Hermione a rare smile, before turning her attention to the table that Faykan and Harry were sitting in. Harry was trying with all his might to get the match to change, while Faykan just sat calmly, not attempting to do anything with his match.

"Mr. Undol, are you not going to even try and change your match?" McGonagall said, slightly abashed.

"If you want me to I will, but I don't feel the need for extra practice." Faykan replied coolly.

"As a matter of fact I would like to see how well you can do to not think you need practice Mr. Undol." She replied firmly, taking an extreme no-nonsense posture in front of the desk that Faykan and Harry shared.

The entire class had turned at Faykan's reluctance to show the Professor and, sighing to himself; Faykan picked up the match and closed his eyes. after a small moment of nothing, not only did Faykan's match become a perfect silver needle, but after a brief pause it also elongated further and twisted around until it resembled a corkscrew shape. Once he was done, Faykan dropped the now extremely bent and twisted metal on the table with a small clunk and ducked his head to hide from the stares of the surrounding students.

McGonagall at least looked very impressed, "Well, apparently you have a fair amount of talent in Transfiguration Mr. Undol, five points to Gryffindor for a perfectly changed needle; however that still does not excuse you from doing the required practice in class, or the homework outside it."

Faykan grinned slyly at her, looking up through his bangs, "Of course, Professor." He said smartly, and turned slightly, beaming back at Hermione's look of absolute shock and mild outrage.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was having a very exciting first week at Hogwarts, which was more or less what all he had expected it to be, according to what his father had told him regarding the school since he could first understand the stories. True, Draco hadn't had a lot of time to chat with his real friends yet, as he didn't count his housemates in that illustrious category as they weren't to be trusted, especially Theodore Nott. They all stank of the same pureblood prejudices that Draco had chosen to give up in exchange for being granted the friendship of Harry Potter and his group, and so he had all but alienated himself from them to restrict the amount of old habits that he could possibly fall back into.

As consequence to this, Nott had taking over as the unofficial leader of the Slytherin first years extremely quickly in his absence as a influential power, and even Crabbe and Goyle didn't hang around Draco anymore, not that he had really cared about those two. None of the other Slytherins said anything against Draco's almost-friendship with The-Boy-Who-Lived however, not even the older ones, the vast majority of them thinking that Draco was probably making the most promising connections that he could, and therefore being a paragon of their House, and those who doubted were in such a minority that they kept silent to not draw attention to themselves.

Had they known that it was Harry who allowed Draco to be his friend, it probably wouldn't be the current case in Slytherin house, but instead a far more hostile place for the eleven year old. Even as it was, Draco was merely ignored as a loner with high ambitions, which was only a few steps up from being persecuted as a 'Blood-traitor' or 'Muggle-lover'.

Slytherin inter-house politics aside, Draco was quite enjoying his classes. He hadn't had his godfather's class yet, but only Binns' and Quirrell's classes thus far had been less than fully enjoyable in both study and application.

Outside the classroom, Draco found solace in wandering the corridors, both during the day and somewhat after curfew, originally starting as an effort to distance himself from those in his house, but quickly evolving into a game to find several new secret every day.

He had only been almost caught once, in one the earliest days of his nighttime wanderings, when he had accidentally run across the Squib caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris. Running through the twisting tunnels of the dungeons, Draco had been surprised by the appearance of a strange black fox-like creature, which had darted around the corner of a junction in the corridor.

Following the route that it had taken purely on the gut instinct that the animal might know where it was going better than he, the creature had somehow led Draco all the way back the Slytherin common room, through various secret doors that Draco would never have found without following the creature's trail. But before Draco could take a good look at his rescuer, the animal had already vanished, disappearing around a corner like a grey-black shadow.

Draco had kept his eyes out for anything fox-like creature ever since that night, but he hadn't had any luck in seeing it again. He had his hopes high, as his father had never mentioned anything about a magical creature that wandered the castle helping lost students; that he had potentially found one of Hogwarts' many secrets, one that even his father had not found before him.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The end of the first week found Severus Snape in a highly edgy mood. It was the first lesson that he would be teaching the combined Gryffindor and Slytherin first year class, which meant three things important things.

First, he would have to make the same show for his newest Slytherins that he always did, giving them apparent favor over the Gryffindor students, at least in public, to teach them that they needed a united front to survive in the world. Second, he got to see if his godson had done his practicing before the school year like he had asked him to since his eleventh birthday. Finally, quite possibly most importantly as well, was the presence of the two Gryffindor boys, Potter and Undol.

Potter was a personal challenge Severus had set for himself. He was going to test the boy and see who he took after, his mother, or his vaunted father. That would gage how much he would expect from the boy in the coming years. Undol on the other hand… ever since McGonagall had mentioned in the staff room how highly developed the boy's power and control over his magic was in her first class, Dumbledore had tasked them all with watching the boy closely, to see why he was so very advanced for a first year.

It was not necessarily a plot to spy on the boy, but it was well understood that those with bad backgrounds tended to be more magically powerful than others, and if the boy was being mistreated in some fashion, it was imperative for them to see the signs before they manifested in poor choices and habits.

Severus had some of his own suspicions of what may or may not be happening, mainly worries that there could truly not be any more of the Undol family alive, and the horrifying ramifications if the boy was being forced to try and take on a life and role he was not, but many years of knowing Albus Dumbledore like he did informed Severus that he would need solid evidence before telling the Headmaster of his fears. The sheer amount of danger the boy would be in if he was indeed an Undol was staggering, that Severus almost hoped that it wasn't true.

As the first years filed into the classroom, Severus watched from his nook near the door. He watched as Potter, the boy who was presumed to be Undol as well as a Weasley child came in together, chatting animatedly about some boyhood thing or other, and sat together near the front of the room. Draco came in later alone, which surprised Severus.

He had figured that Draco would take after his father, Lucius, and become the leader of Slytherin house, but it appeared that had not happened. Severus wondered as to why, but it was answered for him when Undol waved Draco over and the three Gryffindors made room for the one Slytherin boy to join them at the front.

' _Interesting_ ,' mused Severus, ' _perhaps there is hope for the boy yet_.' He had hoped for a long time that the youngest Malfoy might be the one who'd break the cycle of his forebears and break the cycle of muggle hatred and intolerance. This was a good first step, but Severus would keep his peace and see if it would last.

The rest of the students came in after a few more moments, most notably Theodore Nott, now flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, who sniffed at the sight of Draco sitting with the three Gryffindors, and took a seat at the back with his cronies, watching the group of four with a calculating glare.

After the rest of the class took their seats, Severus stepped out of his hiding place and slammed the door, making nearly everyone jump, except for 'Undol'. Severus took note of the perceptiveness of the boy, and walked quickly to the front of the room, and started his class by taking the roll, stopping at Potter's name. The test then began.

"Ah, Yes… Harry Potter. Our new… celebrity…" He said coldly, dragging out the words with venom dripping off each one. Mr. Nott sniggered as his Head of House appeared to disregard the Potter boy with his black eyes. Severus said nothing more for the moment, ignoring the whispers that must have hounded both Potter and 'Undol,' for the entire week and plunged into his same beginning of term speech he used yearly for the new students about what was expected from those who wished to succeed in his class and what they could take from his lessons if they weren't complete dunderheads about learning.

The students sat in quiet anticipation as he spoke; Snape never had had any trouble keeping his pupils' collective attention, as he was very gifted in the art of word craft. Finally he figured it was time to test Potter's knowledge of his subject.

"Potter!" Severus called suddenly, not even facing the boy. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Severus didn't expect anyone in the room to know the answer, least of all Potter, so when, after a glance at his friends, Potter turned to him and said, "The Draught of Living Death, sir?" Snape was pleasantly surprised; apparently the boy hadn't let his fame go to his head and forego all of his studies.

"Correct… let's try another shall we?" Severus acquiesced, before starting into round two, "Where, Mr. Potter would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?" The Potions Master was again surprised when the boy answered correctly.

"In the stomach of a goat, sir," Potter said, slightly more confidently than his first answer.

"Correct." Severus nodded again, more impreesed, deciding a harder question was in order. "And, what is the difference, Potter, between monkshood, and wolfsbane?"

Harry looked slightly confused as Snape said the names of the two ingredients, and he smirked, clearly the boy didn't study completely for this class. But even he was shocked when Potter finally spoke up. "I'm sorry sir, but is that a trick question? They're the same plant." The boy said, much to Severus' shock and surprise.

"Correct, Potter…" he said, actually quite pleased with the results of his test. The boy took after his mother more than he had first guessed at. She had been very studious and bright. Looking towards Potter's friends, he could tell it was thanks to 'Undol' that the boy had developed and maintained such study habits. With genes like his there had to be some outside force keeping him in line so that his mother's genius could shine through Potter's features and possible inherited traits.

Severus would have to make sure that such preparations didn't go to waste, while still maintaining a high standard of excellence for the boy. Let it not be said that Severus Snape would blame the boy for the sins of his father, nevertheless he would make sure that the boy was pushed to whatever heights Potter would dare to reach in the subject Severus taught. Not to mention that Severus would do everything in his power to make sure such talent and skill did not go to the boy's head, like it would have for his father.

"Well, Mr. Potter, clearly fame isn't everything to you. I will award three points to Gryffindor for you not being a useless dunderhead…" he said, to the muted amazement of the gathered class. Severus was well aware that his reputation always preceded him before any new class, and the action of gifting points to Gryffindor, while not impossible, was rare enough to garner attention. "Well?" he said suddenly, glaring at the rest of the students, "Why aren't the rest of you copying that down?" he said sternly.

As the class scrambled to write down the questions and their answers, Severus waved his wand at the chalkboards around his desk, and they magically filled with the instructions for brewing a simple boil curing potion. After the class finished copying down these notes, with the exception of 'Undol' (Snape noticed that the black haired boy had merly read the boards and nodded to himself, as though they were what he expected,) Severus swept around the room splitting the children up into pairs to start brewing the potion.

He paired Draco with Potter, and Weasley with 'Undol', wanting to see how the Gryffindor golden boy would do when separated from his two Gryffindor friends. Later, when he was inspecting their potion, which was doing perfectly well to his pleasure, he heard a cry of alarm. Turning about rapidly, he saw 'Undol' grabbing Neville Longbottom's hand, preventing him from putting porcupine quills into his cauldron.

"No, Neville, you need to take it off the fire first, or it'll explode." 'Undol' was reprimanding the boy as Snape glided over to stand behind the black haired boy. One cursory glance told Severus that the boy had done right by stopping Longbottom, as the results would have melted the cauldron at the least, and much more at the worse, but this was the perfect opportunity for him to prepare a place and time for him to speak with the boy privately, concerning the implied family history that the boy claimed.

"Mr. Undol, what do you think you are doing?" he said coolly.

"I'm preventing my housemate from blowing up the classroom, sir." The boy replied with a slight edge of annoyance that he was being questioned. Another point went to the side of Severus' mind that this boy was more than likely who he claimed to be, but he needed more direct proof before he would allow himself to even consider that one of his good friends had had a child before his abrupt departure from the world.

"I see, however I do not see that you needed to place a hand on another student to transmit the urgency, so I think that will be a point from Gryffindor." Severus said, his traditional Slytherin sneer firmly in place. Looking over at his and Weasley's cauldron, and noticing that not only was it perfectly simmering, but it was actually better than could be expected from first years with the ingredients that Severus had left for them to use. He was sure now that this boy did indeed know a lot more than he was letting on now. a point into the boy being an imposter was added in his mental tally, as it was simply impossible for an eleven year old to be this perfect in so many drastically different classes.

"Sir, I think that's rather unfair of you to take a point from us for that." 'Undol' replied before Weasley could visibly stop him, and was now sternly looking up at Severus with frighteningly familiar eyes.

"Oh, do you now…" Snape said, his own eyes boring back into the boy. There was something disturbingly familiar about how the boy was looking at him, Severus noticed, and he shook it off before turning his attention back to the young upstart who had talked back to him. "Then perhaps a detention over this weekend will teach you to respect your elder's judgment." He replied as he spun back to the front of the room, before smirking to himself while the class could not see his face.

That would allow ample time for him to gage whether this boy was some vagrant coming out of the woodwork with a dead family's name, or the long lost descendant of his old friend. And if he would admit the truth to none but himself, Severus couldn't decide which option was more desired, for better or for worse for the child in question to truly be the heir of the house of Undol.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Despite the altercation between Professor Snape and Faykan, Harry noticed that his best friend's attitude hadn't been overshadowed in the slightest by the Potions Master's behavior; if anything, Faykan looked pleased that he had detention with the man.

"You shouldn't really have pushed it, Fay," Ron commented, shortening the other boy's name casually as they trekked out of the castle, "I've heard Snape can turn real nasty."

Faykan just shrugged in response, muttering something under his breath that neither of the other Gryffindors could hear as he led Harry and Ron across the grounds towards Hagrid's hut.

They arrived at the small wooden building of the edge of the Forbidden Forest just a few minutes before three, and as Harry knocked they heard several booming barks from inside. Hagrid's voice rang out afterward, saying, "Back, Fang. Back!"

The door opened a small crack, and the three boys could just barely see Hagrid's big, hairy face peering around to see them.

"Hang on a sec," he said. "Back, Fang."

He finally let them in, as he struggled to restrain an enormous black boarhound from tackling any of them.

"Make yerselves at home," Hagrid said when he had shut the door, releasing Fang, who immediately went straight for Ron and started licking his ears. Clearly the dog was completely harmless despite its size, much like Hagrid himself, Harry thought. It seemed like a perfect fit in his opinion between owner and pet.

"Hello, Hagrid," Faykan said finally "as you already know quite well who Harry is, allow me to introduce Ron, another of our friends."

Hagrid eyed the red haired boy as he started making tea and placing rock cakes onto a massive plate.

"Another Weasley, eh?" Hagrid said after a moment. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest ye know."

Harry and Ron took a rock cake each, while Faykan declined, which turned out to be the wiser choice, as the hardened mound almost broke Harry's teeth when he bit into it, but he pretended to enjoy it nonetheless. They all took turns telling Hagrid about their first week, while Fang rested his shaggy head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.

Ron commented on how unfair Snape was to Faykan that day, but Hagrid told him not to worry about it, as Snape hardly liked any of the students. In fact, if he was giving them that kind of attention, Hagrid implied that it meant that the Potions Master might expect them to actually be capable of succeeding in his class, and wanted to push them a bit, but Harry wasn't so sure about that.

As the conversation turned from school to Ron's brother Charlie, who was studying dragons in Romania, Harry caught a glimpse of a small cutting from the Daily Prophet. It outlined that on July thirty-first; someone had broken into Gringotts and attempted to steal something from the vaults. But apparently nothing had been taken as the vault in question, number 713, had been emptied earlier.

"Hey, Faykan," Harry said after reading the snippet several times over, "Were we in Diagon Ally on July thirty first, my birthday?"

"Um, no, I do believe we were there a few days earlier, why?" Faykan asked, slightly puzzled.

Hagrid piped in from tending to the kettle of tea, "As a matter o fact, I was at Diagon Ally on the Thirty-firs'... I was pickin' up sumthin' fer Professor Dumbledore from a vault in Gringotts. Contemplated buyin' sumthin' for yer as well Harry, but as yer wouldn'ta remembered me it seemed rather good that I didn'…"

"Did it happen to be vault seven hundred thirteen, Hagrid?" Harry asked warily, suspicion sinking into his stomach. Something seemed too much to just be coincidence.

When Hagrid abruptly changed the subject to the weather, Harry knew that he was correct in presuming that it had been. By the time they left, Harry had more questions in his head than before they arrived: what could have been in the vault that Hagrid had taken right before someone else tried to steal it? Why did Dumbledore want whatever it was taken out? And where was the unknown thing now?

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus Dumbledore watched from the high tower that held the Head office as a trio of red and gold clad students, along with one in silver and emerald, departed from Hagrid's cabin on the grounds. It pleased him that Harry was making so many friends, and even those in different houses, especially Slytherin.

From the reports around the castle, barring Severus', the boy was also doing extremely well in all his classes. However, that was not necessarily what piqued the Headmaster's interest. Severus had dropped several not-so-subtle hints regarding Harry's closest friend, Mr. Faykan Undol.

It seemed that this other black haired Gryffindor was causing quite a stir among the staff and student body with his prodigious talents and easy charisma. It was reassuring that such a boy was there to watch over Harry, just in case the business of the third floor corridor became somewhat extreme, which unfortunately Albus more than expected. The likelihood of the robbery at Gringotts mere hours after Hagrid removed the item of great prize were too slim for Albus to consider it possible that their bait and switch had worked.

No, it was down to the defenses that had been set in place to hinder or potentially capture the mysterious thief, and uncover who he was working for and to what end. Albus had his suspicions, but until the party in question made a move, Albus was unwilling to take action against them. Just the chance of someone making the accusation of the Dark Lord's return would cause a tidal wave of scorn and rejection from the war weary wizarding world, and Albus knew that his political power would be diminished, if not eradicated unless he had absolute proof of his claims.

Still, even as he watched the four children enter the castle once more, Albus allowed himself to dwell on more pleasant thoughts.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

 _Writing this at roughly 2 am, so sadly it may end up briefer than most. Primarily this was just a retooling of some of the less than polished phrasing that I was trending towards when I started out, as well as diverting a touch more from the canonical story. I did rewrite out much of the into to Draco's first bout of wandering the school at night, which some may remembered was when the mysterious fox was first introduced, but I felt that it may be better to hang onto that little tidbit of information a touch longer than I had before._

 _Mostly left the scene with Severus' first class the same, as it was a perfect introduction to how they would interact for a while, but I flushed out, and will continue to in most of the future scenes where Faykan and Severus are together, the relationship that Severus held onto from his days at Hogwarts, as I felt strongly that it was highly underplayed._

 _the Albus section is entirely new information, generally a summation of what occurred, and emphasizing that Albus is very much aware of all that goes on inside the castle, to a point. Again, another interaction that I felt was lacking, and that was Albus' reasoning for allowing Faykan to stay so close to Harry for the first three years at Hogwarts, until he eventually decided that he was too much of a problem, which felt like a drastic change of character to me, and portrayed the man as more of a villain than I intended. So I will be adding in more scenes with Dumbledore, who was absent until the middle of the 2nd book originally, and further develop just what he had in mind to do with the young scion of the house of Undol._


	7. Y1-C6: Slytherin Subtlety

_Once again, many thanks to all those who review. It gives me great pleasure to rewrite this and have so many comment that they enjoy both the original and the new version, happily pointing out things for me to pay attention to or explain my reasoning behind. It continues to be an enjoyable project to work on alongside my other stories!_

 _Leave a comment if you please, lets see, maybe naming a favorite character from either this point in the story or in the future chapters for those who read ahead, now or before, and what you liked about them, as well as a second character that you think needs more attention given to, in either detail or activity. I'd love to see what had been working and what needs more work for use in other projects. Great love and appreciation for those that do!_

 _~F_

 **Chapter Six**

 **Slytherin Subtlety**

Severus Snape stared down his hooked nose at the supposedly young boy he had set to scrubbing out cauldrons for his Saturday evening's detention. He had purposely set the time aside so he would be alone with 'Faykan Undol', so he could study him more closely and figure out the boy's full background.

If he could get the boy to just let slip one or two close secrets, Severus was sure he would be able to not only to settle his own discomfort with the boy, but finally settle the matter that whether this child was indeed the long lost heir of the Undol line, or merely an imposter. In either case, Severus hoped to gather the evidence that he needed to present his arguments to the Headmaster directly, and hopefully get Albus on his side, regardless of the action they needed to take, whether it was protection for the boy or an inquisition.

'Undol' looked up at Severus for about the seventh time since he'd arrived twenty minutes ago for his punishment, and grinned knowingly at the Potions Master, as if he was expressly aware of what Severus was thinking.

' _Perhaps it is time to start pressing on the matter at hand_.' Severus thought to himself.

Another look and grin from the boy; could he possibly know what he was thinking? Severus knew that it took great dedication and a fair amount of magical talent to become a legilimens, but he extremely doubted that this eleven year old could be _that_ powerful in the mind arts to bypass his highly trained Occlumency shields without Severus even being aware of it.

Severus walked over casually to inspect the condition of the current cauldron that 'Undol' was cleaning while it rested, tipped on its side upon the floor while the boy scrubbed the outer rims. The remnants of a spilt potion some student had carelessly allowed to bubble over still marred a tiny spot under one of the pewter support rings, Severus smirked and commented: "You've missed a spot, Mr. Undol."

"I'm aware that I've missed the spot under the handle, Professor, I was making sure that you were keeping sharp your, reportedly, perfect observational prowess when it came to cauldron cleanliness." The boy replied with yet another grin at the Potions Master.

Somewhat miffed at the cheek the boy presented, Severus still raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. Had the boy actually known that he had been looking at that exact spot or was he just really good at guessing?

After several silent moments Severus spoke again. "So," he tried, with a quieter, silkier voice, "the other professors seem to think that you are something of a prodigy. However, I have yet to see anything to imply that you are anything better than an ordinary, simpleminded Gryffindor."

Severus hoped to prick the boy's ego, provoke him, making it all the easier to draw hidden knowledge from him. But the intelligent child, never taking his eyes off the cauldron he was still cleaning, coolly replied in a tone worthy of the Head of Slytherin's admiration, "Well, clearly you haven't been paying attention to Harry's progress in your class then, Sir, or even Ronald Weasley's for that matter, not that I'm going to take all the credit for either of them, but I did at least give them the initial push to study consistently before classes."

' _Ah, so that's the reasoning behind why Potter knew the answers to my questions_ ,' Severus realized. The truth was that high hoped for the group of boys that had surrounded Mr. Potter, even the Weasley boy. Severus had heard from his godson that Potter and he had decided to be partners throughout Potion classes, as they enjoyed working together on the in class work, and Severus couldn't in good conscience pull the two boys apart.

Draco had also mentioned that through 'Undol,' they all were planning to have scheduled time to study together and work on assignments for all their classes. Severus couldn't have been more pleased. Not only was Potter going to dramatically improve in his already above average skills, but Draco also seemed to be strongly drifting away from the atypical blood supremacist type Slytherin mould his father so painstakingly created for the young lad to fit into.

Seeing as this tactic of goading was not going to work with 'Undol' however, Severus shifted his approach to a more aggressive tact, stopping the boy's progress by grabbing his arm and spinning the boy to face him, Severus spoke in a cold icy tone, venom dripping with every word that typically sent fear coursing through even the most stubborn of students.

"You may think that you have the entire school wrapped around your finger, boy, but I can see right through you, so…" As he spoke, Severus pressed the boy's mind ever so softly with his own legilimency. Since he wasn't using his wand, the Potions Master couldn't probe as quickly or as deeply into the boy's psyche as he would have desired, but he presumed that surface thoughts would be sufficient when combined with fear of the threats he was implying to 'Undol'. He would explain his reasoning to Albus when the time was right, as Severus truly felt that it was necessary to know whether the boy was who he claimed or not.

"What is your real name?" Severus questioned.

"Faykan Undol, sir" came the nervous reply, the boy struggling faintly to remove Severus' hand from his arm.

"How did you force the Sorting Hat to put you in Gryffindor after it started to call out Slytherin?" Severus demanded.

"I told it I refused to be separated from my friends, sir." The boy's voice was shaking slightly as Severus clutched his arm tightly. He would have loosened it, not truly wanting to harm the lad, but he needed the child to truly fear for his safety to ensure that he learned the truth. The boy's thoughts were slippery, and Severus was having a difficult time trying to pin anything down that was of importance.

"Don't. Lie. To me," Severus stated coldly, pouring all the hate that he could into the sentence.

"I'm not lying, sir." 'Undol' replied softly, and Severus was surprised when he couldn't read anything definite from the surface thoughts of the boy. If anything, he mused, the boy's thoughts were shrouded to a degree, as if he was being actively screened from the child's private feelings. "Please let go, sir. You're hurting me…"

Scowling down at 'Undol', Severus finally let him go and walked back to his desk. He sat there, just watching the boy for the rest of his two hour detention, and could of swore that in addition to the relatively small traces of fear he could detect, the boy was actually humming to himself as he worked. Soon the boy starting singing softly, and Severus furrowed his brow at the deep sadness the song implied, as visions of a childhood so long forgotten returned, and the despair of friends long gone.

" _i' nyelle lina ie' he gurtha, ar' amin wept nalla en' agar.  
i' quel coia sai wanwa, ar' maranwe ikotane nwalka.  
haba corm lanta e' a ear en' rista, ar' amin sinta amin ereb.  
re risa ringwe e' he sapsa, ar' ilya haba alasse' menel._"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was again perusing his nightly roving of the Hogwarts corridors, having not yet decided whether to limit his wanderings after the incident with Mrs. Norris, and certainly was not stopping altogether. He felt that the walks were needed to get away from Theodore Nott and the other Slytherins at times. The weedy nuisance was getting to be rather aggressive with his attempts to get information about Harry, and strangely, even more so about Faykan, which Draco found very odd, and rather irritating.

He was currently walking down the seventh floor; passing an very ugly tapestry depicting the unfortunate wizard Barnabas the Barmy as he was trying to teach trolls the ballet, when Draco was pounced upon by a grey-black… something. Falling to the floor with a gasp of surprise, he only registered the bushy tail sweeping into a room across the hall that Draco could have sworn hadn't been there before.

Getting to his feet with a grumble and only a slight wince of pain, he walked over to the door and pushed it open, mildly hoping beyond hope that he finally found something new and interesting about the castle again. Within the room was a simple closet space with no other windows or doors, and in the center of the room, staring at him with its bright blue eyes, was a downright massive fox, closer in size to a large jackel, with a black coat streaked with grey in clearly magical spiraling patterns down its spine. With a spike of realization, Draco came to the conclusion that the coloration of this animal match the unknown blur that had rescued him from Filch's cat a mere week ago. Kneeling down, Draco held his hand toward the animal, softly talking to it, hoping to calm it from its extremely unnerved look.

"Hey there little fellow, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you," he said gently, only partially unsure whether the creature was completely wild or not.

At first the fox did nothing but study him with the large crystal-like eyes, but Draco persisted patiently, and ever so slowly, the animal finally crept toward Draco's hand, pausing and sniffing every few steps. The creature seemed even larger up close, and Draco could see that the thin grey streaks on its back began just past its head, and traveled down its spine to the very end of its tail, crossing over each other regularly the entire length of the animal's body, even spiraling down the fox's legs.

When the fox finally got close enough to him, Draco cautiously, not wanting to scare it away, reached over and slowly stroked the fox behind its large ears.

At that, the fox seemed to relax immensely, making a soft mewling noise as Draco touched it. It stepped forward until it was brushing against Draco's legs, prompting him to sit down fully and play with the fox's extremely soft fur. Finally, Draco summoned enough courage to try and pick the fox up off the ground, and was surprised when it didn't react. If anything the fox just squirmed into a more comfortable position against Draco's chest as he partially held the animal, as it was large enough to almost be touching the ground even with Draco supporting it. Draco felt very comfortable just sitting there with a new friend, and he rather lost track of time for while.

After what seemed like hours, but could only have been a few minutes when he later checked, Draco was forced to let go of the fox as it squirmed again in Draco's arms. Once the fox regained its feet upon the ground fully again, it didn't dash away, much to Draco's surprise, but lightly stepped to the door, and rearing back on its hind legs, managed to manipulate the handle and open the door. Exiting after the animal, his curiosity peaked, and watched as the fox walked to the end of the corridor, twitched its ears, before it looked back at Draco, as if saying 'all's clear, come on'.

Perplexed at the human-like behavior of the rather cunning creature, Draco followed the fox until it led him, once again, safely back to the Slytherin common room, at roughly one in the morning, again using several secret passages that Draco would have never known existed.

Before saying the password to get back inside, Draco kneeled down to pet the fox one more time in gratitude. "You think I might see you again soon, little friend?" he asked the fox, who just brushed him with its head in an affectionate way in response, which Draco took as a possible affirmative. Giving the small creature one final affectionate squeeze around the neck, Draco said the password and disappeared inside the common room and went straight to bed.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry never imagined that he could be more easily angered at anyone above the Dursleys, but Theodore Nott took the concept to a whole new level of irritation. Harry still recalled with great annoyance his first encounter with the weedy boy directly.

Harry and his friends, except for Draco, were enjoying their breakfast on the Monday of the second week of lessons, when Harry had sensed several people step up behind him. All conversation had stopped, and both Ron and Faykan, seated across from him, looked past him at the others. Turning slowly, Harry had eyed the scrawny-looking boy standing there boldly with Crabbe and Goyle lurking in his shadow, looking for the entire hall as the bodyguards that they were.

"Yes?" Harry asked, immediately on edge regarding this person, whose eyes seemed to shimmer as the boy glanced back and forth between Faykan and Harry.

"Well, well, Harry Potter..." he said slowly, almost as though he tasted the sound of the words in his own mouth as he spoke them. "I honestly can say i was expecting something a bit grander when I first saw you. Although, somehow I'm not terribly disappointed..." his eyes flicked over Faykan again, "You collect powerful friends... although with only Gryffindors you might find yourself surrounded by the wrong sort of people... I could help you far better in the social regard..." he added, offering his hand, and Harry presumed that it was some sort of offer of friendship.

However, the stuck up manner that he used simply oozed with the confidence that Harry would blindly accept, in favor of any other option, which already rubbed him the wrong way. "I think I'll be more than capable of telling the wrong sort for myself thanks..." Harry said, ignoring the offered hand and turning back to the Gryffindor table, "And I'm friends with Draco Malfoy already, so you presume wrongly that my friends are only in Gryffindor..."

Nott glowered at the rebuttal, withdrawing his hand as though it was burned. "I see you've made your choice then," he said, containing whatever anger he held to just his eye, which burned. "Just be sure that you are prepared to accept the consequences of the bridges that you burn, Potter..."

And, suddenly ignoring Harry completely, the boy had turned to Faykan, "And then there's you, Mr. Faykan Undol... what is it, the third now? Your family has a powerful knack for staying alive despite the attempts of powerful wizards, don't they?"

Faykan seemed to draw himself up taller where he sat, looking nobler than usual, or perhaps formal, Harry wasn't sure how to describe the strange difference.

"I pride myself on the accomplishments of my forebears, as it is more than many can say about their families... or their _allegiances_ ," Faykan retorted, "Nevertheless I have no interests in you offer of alliances, Mr. Theodore Nott. You know just as well as the rest of the Pureblood families the position we of House Undol have taken, and i will not be changing that allegiance."

"Tch..." Nott scoffed, "So be it... but you need not waste that unfathomable power on such fruitless endeavors you know... I can see it..."

"One ought to not brandy about regarding their gifts so lightly," said a new voice, and Harry turned to see Draco standing just behind Nott, "One would think that you wanted people to know your family secrets or something..."

The two Slytherins glared at each other for a few moments, before Nott simply stalked away, the two hulking bodyguards following stupidly behind him.

Draco appeared to want to say something, but the bell to signal the end of breakfast and to start heading to classes sounded, and he shook his head to indicate that he'd speak with them later, and walked away.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of Theodore's antagonizing of the three Gryffindor boys; only the beginning of the trouble that the weedy boy sought to place upon them.

Not only would the scraggly Slytherin snipe cruel and often demeaning comments at them in future lessons or across the hall during meals, but he had also taken to casually following them in the corridors from time to time, berating them all from their clothing to whomever they talked to, especially the latter to Faykan in specific. More than once one of them had to forcibly remind the prat that just because he didn't have any real friends, it didn't give him the right to attack anyone who did. But that only did so much to soothe the desire to physically make him leave their presence at times, or at least in the case of Ron.

Thankfully, they only had Potions with the Slytherin boy, so the Gryffindor boys didn't have to deal with Nott's snarky comments and overall rude behavior too terribly often in class. However, the upcoming flying lessons that Thursday with the Slytherins didn't sit well with Ron, Harry or Faykan. Harry felt as though something was just bound to happen there, and he was angry that he felt powerless to stop it.

"Typical," Harry said darkly when they first saw the notice for the lesson and whom they were paired with as a house, "Just when I get used to the level of sarcasm and lack of tact in my life, the universe strives to subject me to even more. Last thing I want is to make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Nott."

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," Ron said reasonably. "Anyway, you know how Draco's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch; maybe we'll finally see some proof?"

Harry had no option but to agree, however Draco wasn't the only pureblood that liked to talk a lot about flying. Harry figured it must have been all that they had to do growing up, which while flying seemed great, it still felt as though it would get boring after a while. Whenever they were together with Draco, for instance, he complained at least once about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams or told long, painfully boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.

Both Neville and Hermione seemed to be very nervous about the upcoming flying lessons, Neville because he was very accident prone, Hermione because it wasn't a skill you could learn by reading a book. At breakfast on Thursday she bored all within earshot stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out a library book. Neville was hanging on every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang onto his broomstick later, but everyone else was pleased when she was interrupted by the arrival of the mail. In fact the only one immune to the worries about the flying lessons seemed to be Faykan, and Harry felt that if he just stuck next to his best friend, he would at least not do too badly.

Harry had also noticed that since they'd arrived at Hogwarts, Faykan hadn't had a single letter other than Hagrid's note from the end of the week before, and apparently Nott was also keenly aware of this fact. Harry hadn't said anything personally; as he'd not gotten any mail either since arriving at Hogwarts. But for him it was expected, Harry thought at least Mrs. Figg would have written Faykan by now, what with him living with her for several years on end and all.

"Oh, no mail again today, Undol," Nott sneered with mock concern as he was unnecessarily passing the Gryffindor table on his way out of the Great Hall, "One would almost think that you weren't cared about..."

Nott always had his family's large screech owl bringing him packages of sweets and other things from home, which he liked to open gloatingly at the Slytherin table, projecting his voice for the whole Hall to hear. Harry found it frustrating that not even the teachers seemed to care about stopping the obvious bullying that was going on in front of them.

"Well, Nott, I don't need care packages from home to remind me that my family hasn't forgotten that I exist, unlike you." Faykan replied with a smirk.

Nott was about to retort, when another owl swooped down, dropping a package to Neville from his grandmother. Everyone stopped, even Nott, to watch as he opened the package, to reveal a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"Oh look," Neville said as he pulled it out to show everyone, "my Gran sent me a Rememberall."

"I've read about those," added Hermione, "When the smoke turns red, it means that you've forgotten something."

And indeed Hermione was correct, as the white smoke turned scarlet in Neville's hand. As Neville mentioned the difficulty of remembering what he had forgotten, Nott snatched the Rememberall out of his hand, and the smoke remained red.

Both Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. Harry at least had been half hoping for a reason to confront Nott directly, but Professor McGonagall, who had the gift of foreseeing imminent trouble as it was brewing, was there in a flash.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

"Nott's got my Rememberall, Professor." Neville whimpered.

Scowling at the small red clouded sphere, the Slytherin boy quickly dropped the glass ball back onto the table, where it landed with a dull thud.

"Just having a look," he said unapologetically, and he strutted away, with Crabbe and Goyle hot on his heels. Despite the hopeful muttering that they all had seen the last of Nott's antics for that day, Harry remained resigned to the fact that the annoying Slytherin was likely only getting warmed up.

Late in the afternoon, Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor first years walked down onto the grounds for their flying lesson. It was a pleasant day, with clear skies that seemed perfectly suited to flying. As they neared the area they were told to meet Madam Hooch, the flying instructor, they found the Slytherins already there, milling about twenty or so broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground.

Finally, after a few awkward seconds of each group of students staring each other down, Madam Hooch appeared. She had short grey hair and strange yellow eyes that resembled a hawk's.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked at them as she arrived, "Everyone needs to stand by a broomstick, on the right side if you're left handed and vice-versa. Come on, hurry up!"

Harry walked over to the left side of a broom, and Faykan and Ron took the brooms on either side of him, Faykan taking the right hand side of his broom. Harry momentarily glanced down at his broom. It looked very old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick your wand hand over your broom," Madam Hooch called at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"Up!" everyone shouted in response.

Harry's broom leaped into his hand at once, closely followed by Faykan's. Looking around, Harry noticed that theirs were the majority of the very few that had done so. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't budged at all, probably responding to the quaver in Neville's voice, which clearly stated that he wanted to keep his feet firmly on the ground.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the ends, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Ron was delighted when she told Draco he'd been doing it wrong for years, while Faykan simply coughed, suppressing a snigger when she did the same for Ron moments later.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," Madam Hooch explained. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, then lean forward slightly, and touch back down again. On my whistle; three, two…"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of leaving the ground, pushed off far too hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back down this instant, boy!" She shouted, but Neville was already shooting straight up and away from the rest of them like a rocket. He went further and further, until Harry saw him look back at the ground, terrified, and he slipped sideways off his broom, crashing to the ground with a nasty thud followed by a sick cracking sound.

The entire class raced over to where Neville had fallen, but Faykan reached him first. By the time Madam Hooch had arrived, Faykan had immobilized Neville's arm with a quickly muttered spell, and she bent over him.

"Nicely done Mr. Undol, what the other teachers said about you is definitely true, two points to Gryffindor," she said quickly to Faykan before as she studied Neville's hand, "Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on boy, it's going to be fine, up you get."

She then turned to the rest of the class, "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be removed out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch,'" she threatened, before turning back to Neville, "Come on, dear."

Neville allowed her to lead him back toward the castle, clutching his wrist and allowing Madam Hooch to support him slightly.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Nott burst into laughter. "Did you get a good look at his face Undol, when you were fixing the poor baby?" he shouted with a sneer. The other Slytherins, save Draco, joined in the derision.

"Look what we have here!" Nott added after a few minutes of laughter, and he darted forward to snatch something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's grandmother sent him." The Rememberall glittered in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Nott," said Faykan quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch, while Nott smiled nastily.

"No," he gloated, "I think it'll be more fun if I leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find," he added coldly, mounting his broom, improperly, and kicking off, "How about on the roof?" he laughed as he soared upward and away from the other students.

Faykan was lining up his wand at Nott, but Harry darted in, grabbing up his broom, just as Hermione Granger tried to stop them both.

"Harry, Faykan… no way, you heard what Madam Hooch said, besides, you'd both get into so much…" but Harry ignored her. He mounted the broom and kicked off. The air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him, and it suddenly occurred to Harry why the pureblooded children talked so much about flying. This was something he could do without being taught, this was easy, and it felt wonderful.

Harry soared up to Nott and turned his broomstick to face him. Nott had clearly not been expecting Harry to be the one to take up his unspoken challenge.

"Give it here, Nott," Harry called at him, "or I'll knock you off your broom!"

"Oh, really?" Nott replied, trying to look smug, but unease broke through his mask of indifference.

Instinctively, Harry knew exactly what he needed to do. Leaning forward, he shot toward Nott like an arrow. The Slytherin barley managed to maneuver out of the way in time; Harry made an abrupt turn and faced the now very white-faced Nott again. He heard gasps and screams from girls below and excited whoops from Ron and Faykan.

Nott looked extremely worried. He seemed to ponder his next course of action for a moment, then called out, more for the crowd below than for Harry, "If you want it so bad, Potter, catch it… if you can!" and threw the Rememberall as hard as he could and streaked back to the ground.

Harry saw the light glinting off the small glass ball as it flew through the air. Putting on a large boost of speed, he took off after it. Leaning forward, he dived after the ball. Moments before it hit the ground, Harry grabbed it and flipped backward with his broom, coming to a steady stop a few feet above the ground and landing with the Rememberall clutched safely in his fist. The Gryffindors surrounded him, Faykan and Ron pounding him on the back, their cheers and congratulations echoing in his ears. It was the best feeling Harry had ever felt in his life.

"HARRY POTTER!" yelled an adult voice from toward the castle

"Oh no," Harry moaned as he saw Professor McGonagall hurrying toward him, holding her hat so it wasn't blown off her head as she ran.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco saw the entire aerial confrontation from his position at the back of the Slytherin group. Harry was absolutely amazing on a broom; he made flying look like an art form. Draco admitted to himself that he could probably never learn to fly that well in his entire life, but if anyone asked him about it he would have vehemently denied it. At the sight of Professor McGonagall sternly calling Harry over to her however, Draco's heart sank for his friend. Harry was most assuredly in very deep trouble now.

Draco hurried over to Ron and Faykan, who had attempted to follow Professor McGonagall as Harry was led away by the Head of Gryffindor, much to the amusement of Nott and the other Slytherins. But Draco didn't care what the skinny ponce thought right now, real friends were far more important than looking good to a group of near strangers.

"Hey," Draco said to them as he arrived, "How bad is it gonna be you think?" he said hopefully.

"Probably pretty bad," Ron said dejectedly, "She wouldn't even let any of us explain why Harry was in the air, and everyone knows McGonagall is stricter on us than anyone else."

"Oh no," Draco murmured. "I hope he doesn't get expelled, if it means anything to you both." He added reassuringly.

"So do we, Draco, so do we…" Faykan commented with a faraway look as they returned slowly to the castle.

Later, at dinner, Draco found out that Harry was still in the castle despite the wild rumors that circulate through Slytherin, and he hurried over to the Gryffindor table to learn exactly what had happened after he had been led away by Professor McGonagall. He arrived just as Harry was finishing explaining to Ron and Faykan.

"I start training next week," he had just said to them both. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

"What's a secret Harry?" Draco asked, hopeful. "Please tell me you weren't expelled." He added holding his breath slightly.

"Harry isn't going to be expelled, Draco," Faykan assured, and then lowered his voice to a whisper so that only Draco, Harry and Ron could hear him "As to the secret, McGonagall was so impressed with Harry's flying, that she took him to see Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and Harry got made Seeker for Gryffindor."

"No way," Draco said in wonder, "but, first years never make their house teams," turning to Harry, who only smiled, he continued slightly breathless, "that would make you the youngest seeker in a…"

"… in a century, according to Wood," Harry finished for him, beaming at his fortune.

Just then, two red headed boys came into the Great Hall and came toward the three Gryffindors and one Slytherin; Draco knew they were Fred and George Weasley but he could never tell each twin apart. They glared suspiciously at Draco, until Faykan jabbed one of them hard in the stomach and sent them a look.

"Hey, well done Harry, Wood's just told us." One of the twins whispered to Harry. "We're on the team too, beaters." The twins then started rattling off about the Quidditch Cup with Harry and Ron, and while Draco was content to just watch his friends in their happiness, Faykan nudged his arm and inclined his head to the Entrance Hall.

Curious, Draco followed him out and down the stairs into the dungeons. As Faykan led him into an unused classroom, Draco wondered how it was the Gryffindor knew the layout of the dungeons so well. When Draco had closed the door to the room, he turned to find Faykan lounging on one of the stools, leaning it on two legs with his back to the unused teacher's desk.

"So, Draco," he began, "As you no doubt are wondering why I've led us down here, so I'll get straight to the point. I'd like to ask you a few questions about Theodore Nott."

Whatever Draco was thinking, that hadn't been it. "Um, ok." He replied slowly. Draco proceeded then to tell Faykan what little he knew about his fellow Slytherin, about how he was raised by his elderly father after his mother had tragically died trying to give birth to a daughter, who also hadn't survived the traumatic complications that came up sometimes when Pureblood women gave birth. It was the primary reason that many Pureblood families had few children, as each pregnancy was a risk of death from magical instability.

"Draco, is Nott's father a Death Eater?" Faykan asked bluntly after Draco had mentioned the amount of time Mr. Nott Sr. had spent around his father's manor.

"I really don't know… maybe?" Draco answered, truthfully. "I couldn't say for certain, I was never allowed to be in the room when my father entertained _certain_ guests."

"And their family's heredity gift is magical sight…" Faykan pressed further. Draco could only nod. Knowledge of those sorts of gifts that pureblood families held were normally tightly held secrets, but Nott had once tried very hard to be friends with Draco, when they were very young, and accidentally let it slip. Clearly from his behavior the previous week that had not changed.

That seemed to answer Faykan's main concerns, and he turned to look out the small window in the classroom, seemingly deep in thought. Draco was about to turn and leave him to his pondering when Faykan suddenly spoke again. "Draco, how much do you know about your own ancestry?"

That caught Draco off guard, "Well… my father told me quite a bit about the Malfoy line…" Draco began, but Faykan interrupted him.

"No… no… I mean your mother's line, the Black family," he clarified.

"Um, not too much really, I mean my mother told me a few stories, but that was about it," Draco admitted. Faykan just nodded, knowingly.

"Hmm, that is indeed a pity as current knowledge of that particular bloodline only extends to the Middle Ages… I had wondered if the members of the Black family themselves had more comprehensive records, but clearly they either do not, or do not understand the importance, after all, five thousand years is a long time..." Faykan said, in part to himself more so than to Draco, before trailing off into his own thoughts once again, staring deeply into a blank wall with a very faraway look.

Draco desperately wanted to ask what Faykan was talking about, but by the time he mustered the courage to begin voicing the first of many question, Faykan had already turned and swept past him out of the door, moving back up the dungeon stairs back toward the Entrance Hall, his robes billowing behind him in his swift movement. It strongly reminded Draco of his godfather's mysterious ability to almost glide through the corridors as he stalked through the castle.

"Freaky…" he said to himself, almost dazed by the striking similarity that the two seemed to share in that regard.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

As Harry and Ron made their way out of the Great Hall after dinner, their conversation with Fred and George having gone on far longer than they had anticipated it would, they found Faykan walking across the Entrance Hall toward them, seeming as though he had just come up from the dungeons.

"Hey, where have you been?" Ron called out to Faykan as he joined them and they continued up the marble staircase.

"Oh, Draco wanted to have a word, so we went down into the dungeons for a brief, private chat." Faykan replied, dismissing their concern with a wave of his hand. Ron however, didn't notice the implication of what Faykan had meant, in conjunction of what had previously transpired. "Oh, well, we were just wondering where you had gone was all."

Harry however, more certainly did, having had more experience with the other black haired boy's nature of keeping the important things to himself. "And what did you talk about with Draco?" he asked pointedly, even catching Ron off guard with the abruptness of his question.

Faykan paused, looking at Harry like it was the first time he had seen him in a long time, before responding slowly, "I asked him some things about Nott, and he wanted to know if you really weren't expelled. He was very worried about you Harry…" he added, making Harry flush when he realized how incredibly bad it looked to be prying into Faykan's private conversation with Draco. "Oh," he managed, before Faykan smiled and they started walking again. Even still, Harry had a feeling that something had been left out of Faykan's explanation, but there was little that he could do to try and find out without looking like a prat, so he simply let it go.

They were just starting to ascend the Grand Staircase to head back to Gryffindor Tower, when the three boys stopped as someone called Harry's name. Turning back, they saw Hermione Granger hurrying to catch up. "Oh, no, what does she want now?" Ron groaned, the sound changing to a gasp of surprise as Faykan stepped hard on his foot, silencing him as the girl came within earshot.

They started walking again before she caught them however; half hoping she'd give up, but to no avail. "Harry," she called as she joined them, "I just heard the strangest rumor about you; something about being put on the Gryffindor Quidditch team after that bout of rule breaking during the flying lesson."

"Who'd you think spilt the secret?" Ron said angrily "Bet ya it was Malfoy."

"Couldn't have been, he was with me and I saw him head toward his common room when I left him in the dungeons." Faykan replied casually, "More likely it was either Wood or your twin brothers showing off to anyone who'd listen." Harry grinned to himself at the thought of the rebuttal, but was confused at how Faykan knew where the Slytherin common room was, again linking it back to the secrecy that his best friend had regarding the conversation he had had with Draco.

"So it _is_ true!" said Hermione. "You know Harry, you really are quite lucky to have not been punished. I mean, normally McGonagall is really strict about rule breaking and…" but whatever else she was going to say was cut off when the staircase they were all on shuddered, and shifted sideways suddenly, throwing them all off balance. They all caught the railing hard, knocking the wind from them as the staircase realigned itself to another landing completely from where they had been heading.

"What's happening?" Harry said in shock.

"The staircases change, remember." Hermione replied matter-of-factly.

As it settled into its new position, Faykan hurried up to the next landing, but the staircase ahead shifted away, stranding them on the landing. "Blast!" He said angrily, and then turned to the nearby door, "Let's go through here, and try to find another way around. There's no telling how long it'll take for the stairs to return to this side."

Hermione hesitated, but had no working argument against Fay's logic, and followed after the three boys. As they entered the deserted corridor, the four Gryffindors noticed at once that something was out of place.

"Does anyone get the feeling," Harry said, "That we shouldn't be here?"

"We're not _supposed_ to be here, this is the third floor. It's forbidden!" Hermione hissed at him, tugging Faykan's arm back toward the staircase.

Turning to leave they stopped at the sight of Mrs. Norris entering behind them. "It's Filch's cat!" said Ron.

"Run!" yelled Harry, panicking. It must have been infectous, as together they all tore down the corridor until they slammed into the door at the very end. Unfortunately it was locked. They could hear footsteps approaching and Ron was starting to hyperventilate as he yanked on the handle desperatly.

"Oh move over," Hermione snarled, shoving both Ron and Faykan aside before, whipping out her wand, she muttered ' _Alohomora_ ' while pointing it at the door. The lock clicked and they wrenched the door open. They all scrambled through the door and slammed it behind them.

"Anyone here, my sweet?" Harry could hear Filch mutter to his cat from the other side of the door moments later. But, as the crotchety old man could see no one, he finally moved away, calling Mrs. Norris after him.

"Lucky for us he thinks this door is locked," Ron said finally after they were sure Filch had gone.

"It _was_ locked." Hermione retorted hotly.

"And for good reason…" Faykan said nervously, facing down the corridor they were standing in. They all whipped around, and found standing before them the reason that this corridor was expressly forbidden.

A monstrous dog creature with three massive heads stood in the center of the corridor, blocking all passage in that direction. All six of its eyes were watching them and it was growling menacingly, drool dripping from its massive fangs. Harry clawed for the doorknob as the dog started bounding toward them in the small enclosed space. Just as he got the door open it was nearly upon them.

" _Onna kaima!_ " Faykan cried, whipping out his own wand as they fell backward through the now open doorway, and the dog slumped to the floor, whether unconscious or dead, Harry did not know. Not in a mood to stop to check however, the four students slammed and relocked the door and bolted back to the stairs, practically flew up them and didn't stop running until they were in front of the fat lady all the way on the seventh floor. Ignoring her remarks about the lateness of the hour, they supplied the password, sprinted inside, and immediately fell into armchairs around the fire of the common room, which was almost completely burnt out.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron said finally, still gasping for air slightly.

Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, do you?" she snapped at him. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet; I was too busy with its heads."

"No, not the floor, it was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." She responded, not quite as hotly as before, but still clearly upset with the three boys for getting into that mess to begin with.

Faykan got a very faraway look at her words, and started muttering to himself, "Out of bounds to anyone who… hmm… interesting…"

Harry was about to ask what Faykan was muttering about, when Hermione stood up, still glaring at them. "I hope you're very much pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed, or worse, expelled! Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

Ron stared after her, his mouth open. "That girl _needs_ to sort out her priorities…"

As the three boys climbed into bed minutes later, Harry mused as to what the dog could possibly be guarding. Didn't Hagrid mention that he'd taken something out of Gringotts, right before the very same vault had been robbed? Then there was still the handful of things that surrounded Faykan that had not been properly addressed. Harry was feeling rather put out that he was being left in the dark about so many things.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus felt the wards he had placed over the door leading to the forbidden third floor corridor trigger, and stood from his desk in a flash. It was foolish of Tom to have gone for the stone so quickly, but Albus wasn't about to allow the man forgiveness for his impatience and hurry to intercept and apprehend the man, along with whatever accomplice was working with him.

Unfortunately, even as he departed his office, the ward pinged again in his mind, telling him that whoever had entered just left by the same door. At this rate, even at a full sprint and making use of every secret passage that he knew of that would cut any time between his office and the third floor, Albus knew that he would not be able to catch whomever it was that had entered before they fled the scene, but there might be traces left behind that could possibly have a few clues as to the identity of the accomplice.

Once he arrived at the third floor, Albus lulled the hulking Cerberus to sleep with a simple charm, empowered by a jaunty tune that he learned from a muggle program several years ago, and Albus began his search.

A series of quick charms revealed that not just one, but four individuals had been in the room briefly, and no farther than just within the door. What was more, three of the four signatures were underage, which led Albus to suspect that a group of students had been investigating places they ought not have gone, and were caught and led away by one of the staff. The problem with that presumption however, was that he was well aware of the magical signature of every teacher in the school, and the fourth aura here was not one of them.

Nevertheless, Albus felt that it was a magical signature that he had encountered before, and not the stale reek that was always coupled with Tom or his followers. If anything, the magical aura left here felt dusty, as though long with age, as well as a deep refreshing sensation. Albus was no diviner when it came to magical auras, but along with most aspects of magic he had dabbled enough to have a basic understanding that whoever had cast a spell here had been extremely old and powerful.

This at last led to the most disturbing of his conclusions. Someone was impersonating a student, and in the guise of leading others to this room, was trying to test the strengths of the defenses. The question remaining was whether this person was a servant of Tom's, or some other entity altogether that had learned of the existence of Flamel's stone and that the old Alchemist had hid it away with Albus at the school.

He would have to keep extra vigilant of anything out of the ordinary from here on, and perhaps it would be best to request that if anything suspicious was to happen that Severus would come here and try to stave off anymore attempts to probe the defenses of the Stone.

 _i' nyelle lina ie' he gurtha, ar' amin wept nalla en' agar :_ _The bells tolled at her passing, and I wept tears of blood._

 _i' quel coia sai wanwa, ar' maranwe ikotane nwalka :_ _The good life is so fleeting, and destiny is so cruel._ _  
haba corm lanta e' a ear en' rista, ar' amin sinta amin ereb :_ _My heart is tossed in a sea of pain, and I know that I am alone._

 _re risa ringwe e' he sapsa, ar' ilya haba alasse' menel :_ _She lies cold in her coffin, and all my joy has flown._

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

 _Oh my sweet goodness, so much to cover in changes. Firstly, another title change, as I was falling into a rather bland pattern of naming, and had since them revised what I was up to, in order to have the chapter titles reflect a better, albeit vague, sense of what was entailed within._

 _Length, oh yes, the chapter after this one had SO much overhaul that it more than exceeded its bounds, and to limit how massive it grew to I had to let some spill backward into this one, which compounded with the changes I added to extensively grow the size of the chapter. I hope that in future ones, probably Year 3-4 and on will relatively even out, as that was where I got into the pattern of 13 MS word pages per chapter, on average._

 _New items, aside from grammer changes and some syntax that I improved upon, I had to rework the Severus scene to bett comply with the new direction that I was taking the character, as he needed to be less rude and angry at Faykan, which in the new context as a friend of his father made no sense, while at the same time be concerned as he was not aware whether the Undols had any more children after Voldemort killed them._

 _I kept the song in its place, as it marks a good entrance book end to what happens in the end book, where the final verse is sung, and portray's Severus character almost perfectly in my opinion._

 _Much larger introduction for Theodore, rather than having be a standard carbon copy of Canon Draco, and emphasizing his fascination with Faykan early on, rather than it being Harry centric, as there was little reason for him to pay more attention to Harry than anyone else. Standard flying scene, as it was something important to Harry's character growth, so I had to allow it._

 _Also, new Dumbledore scene added in, as it was highly unlikely that the wasn't monitoring the corridor actively, otherwise why did Quirrell-mort wait until he had the Headmaster out of the castle before acting? felt appropriate to try and boost how active he was in the story._

 _So fun, and even more changes yet to come in the next chapter!_

 _Wonderful day to all!_

 _~F_


	8. Y1-C7: House Undol's Secret

_Keep the reviews coming, all the encouragement possible is greatly appreciated and desired. ~F_

 **Chapter Seven**

 **House Undol's Secret**

A week later at breakfast, Harry and Ron were still discussing not only the recent adventure of the three headed dog, but how they were going to rub Nott's face in the fact that Harry got put on the Quidditch team for Gryffindor instead of expelled during the flying lesson. Faykan continued to be very quiet, and Harry noticed that he was looking rather tired lately, as if he wasn't sleeping well.

"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," Ron was saying, in relation to the mystery on the third floor, while Harry was studying Faykan, wondering what could be keeping him up at night. "Or both," Harry replied absently.

Hermione however, showed absolutely no interest in what lay underneath the dog or the trapdoor. In fact, she was refusing to speak to any of the three boys, which suited them just fine.

Harry was about to ask Faykan why he looked so tired when the mail arrived, and amidst the torrent of owls Harry quite forgot about Faykan and his troubles. His attention, like so many others, was drawn to a long thin package that was being carried by no less than six large screech owls. Harry was then further caught off guard when they dropped the package right in front of him, splashing milk from a toppled pitcher. The six owls had barely whirled away when Hedwig soared down to land next to Harry's arm, a letter in her beak. While Ron and several others continued to gawk at the package, Harry took the letter first, and opening it read:

' _DO NOT OPEN THIS PARCEL AT THE TABLE!_

 _It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session._

 _Professor McGonagall_ '

Harry handed the note to Ron and Faykan, unable to now take his eyes off the package. "Wow," Ron moaned, "A Nimbus Two Thousand! It's the fastest model yet."

Quickly standing and grabbing Faykan by the arm, who really did look like he was going to fall asleep right into his plate of bacon, the three Gryffindors left the hall. Harry wanted very badly to open the box containing his new broomstick before their first class, but halfway across the Entrance Hall they found themselves halted by the massive forms of Crabbe and Goyle. Nott, smirking, seized the package from Harry and rolled it over in his hands.

"That's a broomstick, Potter," he said, throwing it back jealously at Harry, envy evident on his face and spite dripping from his word. "You'll be in for it this time, first years aren't allowed to have them."

Ron was about to retort angrily, but at that moment, Professor Flitwick appeared beside Nott.

"Not arguing I hope, boys?" he squeaked.

"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor," Nott said quickly, triumph on his pale face at the hope of getting them into trouble.

"Yes, yes that's right," Flitwick said, beaming at Harry, much to the shock of Nott. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," said Harry, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Nott's face. "And it's really thanks to Theodore here that I've got it," he added snidely.

As the three Gryffindors headed upstairs after being dismissed by the tiny Charm's master, Ron and Harry smothering their laughter at Nott's look of rage and confusion, they noticed Faykan lagging behind them, clearly winded. "Hey, what's up with you today?" Ron said concernedly as they jogged back down to help their friend.

"Nothing… just tired…" Faykan panted.

"C'mon Fay, you can tell us what's going on." Harry persisted, suddenly remembering that he wanted to ask about this himself.

"It's because he's been sneaking out of the castle every night for the last week." An angry voice said from just behind them. Hermione was stomping up the stairs after them, looking disapprovingly at Faykan's state of exhaustion. "Honestly the way you boys behave you'd think you were immune to punishments." She continued, starting to rant.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" said Harry quickly.

"Yes, don't stop now;" said Ron, "it's doing us so much good."

Hermione just ignored him and stomped away, her nose in the air.

Turning back to Faykan, who was looking paler than usual, Harry heaved the smaller boy onto his arm for support, and with Ron taking his other side, they continued up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower. "You know, mate," Ron said later to Fay, grinning slightly as they bypassed the Fat Lady, "you really shouldn't push yourself like this, you're already way too small as is and we can't take care of you like this forever." Faykan managed a weak half-chuckle, and when they arrived in their dormitory, Harry and Ron sat him on his bed and let him sleep for a few minutes while they opened and admired the broomstick.

It truly was a remarkable broom, but sadly there was only a short amount of time that they had before needing to leave once more for their morning classes. Both Ron and Harry continued to watch Faykan rather worriedly over the course of that day, but the short nap they had forced him to take seemed to tide him over till dinner at least, as he didn't slump over in any of their classes, even if he didn't seem to pay any attention. Thankfully the professors didn't take notice, as Faykan rarely paid much mind to their lectures, but was so talented that he was able to easily do the class work without instruction anyway.

Harry was concerned that they might have to keep this level of monitoring up on Fay for quite a while until he recovered from being constantly tired, as even at the end of the day he went straight up to bed, unlike the rest of their other dorm mates, but thankfully by Halloween, Harry and Ron both noticed that Faykan was looking much better. It seemed that he took their advice to heart and ceased, or at least heavily cut back, his nighttime adventures.

Whatever he had been up to however, Harry never found out, regardless of the number of times he had casually asked about them. Fay was very good as shifting around the questions or distracting them with other events going on around them, and Harry eventually gave up as yet another thing that was determined to remain a mystery about his closest friend.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione Granger knew she was a clever enough Muggleborn witch, her teachers had attested to that fact often enough, and she knew spells that her classmates probably had never even heard of, outside of a few.

While very few things stumped her, the one mystery that currently was setting her on continual edge these days was known as the black haired boy named Faykan Undol, who was currently sitting next to Harry, two chairs away, leaning back in his seat and not even trying to levitate the feather that Professor Flitwick had given to them both to practice for their first practical charm lesson on Halloween.

Hermione had no idea what to make of this boy… he was extremely intelligent, probably a match for Hermione's own mind, if not even out of her league, which was saying something. He certainly was able to carry out anything the professors asked of him flawlessly, and then some at times, but yet still seemed rather reluctant to perform any of his abilities unless asked directly to do so.

And then, there was the events during the horrible encounter with the three headed dog. Hermione distinctly remembered the boy crying out something that sounded very much like a spell right before the dog had fallen asleep with a crash before them. Hermione couldn't confirm exactly what had happened, as she was not going back to that corridor for any reason ever, but she had gone to the library and sought out any idea where such a spell was. She had gone over every book she could get her hands on baring the Restricted Section, but couldn't find a single thing that seemed remotely similar to whatever it was that he had said. it didn't even seem like a Latin based spell at all, but something more ancient in origin and far more elegant, if such a word was able to express what it had sounded like.

And then, after that, there was over a solid week that she had spied from her dorm's window as the boy sneaked right out of the castle night after night, disappearing into the forest until she presumed the early hours of the day. Whatever he was up to seemed to be draining on him as well, as the boy looked terrible every morning and the lack of motivation extended well into the afternoon before his energy returned, only for him to go out and repeat the madness all over again.

If Hermione only had an idea what the boy was up to, maybe she could help him cease such detrimental and prohibited activities, and just maybe, things might hopefully return to a sense of magical normalcy, with boy Fay and Hermione struggling over top grades in all their classes once more, aside from History of Magic naturally, as the boy was terrible at the class.

Turning partially in her seat to watch the pair again, Hermione saw Faykan take Harry's arm and correct his wand movement ever so slightly, but Harry seemed to be making little progress with the assignment regardless. Between them and Hermione, Ronald Weasley was having even less success at the spell than Harry.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he finally shouted angrily, waving his arms like a windmill in hopes that something would happen.

Hermione finally snapped only when Ron's wand came close to hitting her in the face due to that bout of temper. "Stop, stop," she said hastily, grabbing Ron's arm to prevent herself from being actually hit. "You're going to put someone's eye out; besides, you're saying it wrong. It's Levi- _o_ -sa not Levi-o- _sa_!" She said irritably. Honestly, it wasn't that hard to repeat a simple pronunciation.

"You do it then, if you're so clever!" Ron snarled back, still extremely frustrated.

Hermione sighed as she rolled up the sleeves of her robes, flicked her wand, and intoned clearly and correctly the incantation, saying it slow enough for the boy to hear her inflections on the syllables, " _Wingardium Leviosa_!" The feather she was practicing with rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads perfectly, just as it was supposed to.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping as he approached from the other side of the room, where he had been inspecting everyone's progress. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!" he praised, but Ron leaned over and set his head on his books, clearly put out and upset at her showing him how the spell was to be done, but she ignored this in favor of the opportunity that the movement presented, allowing Hermione to watch as the diminutive Professor moved on down the line to Faykan and Harry, and gently asked if Faykan was even going to try and levitate their feather.

Faykan just shrugged uncaringly, lifted his wand and simply pointed it at the feather, which immediately shot up into the air and hovered there like a kite on a string. While Flitwick showered him with praise for his spell work, Hermione looked on in shock.

Not only had the boy not performed the wand movement for the spell that they had spent almost a week practicing, but he hadn't even said the incantation, which was something that Hermione was sure that they were almost entirely expected to do for many years while at Hogwarts, and well into their adult lives as well.

It was simply well and beyond their level of possible instruction; even of the boy was as advanced as he had said back on the train. Something was definitely off with this boy's level of magical control, and Hermione was going to find out what it was.

After class ended, Hermione followed the three boys down to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast. Ron was complaining loudly about her and how 'bossy' she was, but she was staring too intently at Faykan as he walked on the other side of Harry from Ron to notice or care what the immature red haired boy was saying.

She observed something odd on the back of the boy's neck as he shifted to let another student pass between him and Harry, and speeding up to overtake them, she hurried past the three boys very closely in the wake that the other student had provided, purposely knocking into Faykan's side as she passed. She got a much better view of what was there beneath his collar as the fabric moved aside from the impact: grey marks were purposefully drawn onto either side of the back of the boy's neck, disappearing down into his robes, winding around each other like snakes with very peculiar-looking writing along the length of each.

That was all she was able to get a glimpse of however, as to linger would have brought on the wrath of hot-headed Ronald, who already was heavily displeased, so Hermione made a small show of wiping at her eyes as she hurried on, turning a corner and dodging out of sight of whatever they had to say regarding her temporary rudeness. She would ask for forgiveness for it at a later time, when she had already worked out all that this strange mystery posed, and help the status quo of Hogwarts return to its equilibrium.

Hermione rushed off, not wanting to be around other students right now when she had such a puzzle before her, and so she dismissed the thought of the feast and went out, seeking a secluded place to strain her mind and think if there was somewhere she'd seen those kinds of letters before; she felt like she had briefly read something about ritualistic tattoos in ancient languages before. Arriving at a girls toilet, she pushed past Parvarti Patil as she went inside, uncaring what the loud mouthed girl thought. likely she would gossip immediate as she arrived at the Great Hall about how Hermione was in the bathroom crying or something, but that worked out to her advantage all the same. However, it seemed that the other girl took little notice of her, as usual, but Hermione knew better. The girl couldn't keep her mouth shut regarding anything but her assignments, which were not terribly great to say the least.

Once fully inside the toilet, Hermione locked herself in a stall to have several minutes of privacy to think where she had seen markings like Faykan's described before. It wasn't something she had been looking for particularly, so she had to really think of what she had been researching at the time, and then mentally go back through all the books she had read regarding that topic to find where she had come across the information, random as it had been at the time.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry thought that the Halloween Feast was absolutely glorious. Live bats were fluttering around the student's heads like great dark clouds of wings, while massive pumpkins floated over the house tables, each filled with lit candles, which cast eerie shadows over the entire Great Hall in the absence of any lit torches along the walls. Even the knowledge that Hermione was currently crying in a girl's bathroom, supplied by Parvati Patil, and quite likely because of Ron's verbal assault about her immediately after Charms class, couldn't quite dampen his spirits from enjoying the first Halloween that he was able to celebrate like anyone else.

Harry was just taking a twice-baked potato, passed to him by an equally energetic Faykan, when Professor Quirrell appeared from the Entrance Hall, sprinting inside with his turban askew and terror evident on his face. Apparently fear could overcome his constant stuttering, because he cried in a very clear, high pitched tone. "Troll! In the dungeons! Troll in the dungeons!" he made it half way up the house tables and stopped, panting. "Thought you ought to know." he added to the Head Table in general before fainting to the floor, from either fear or hyperventilation Harry didn't know.

There was a moment or two of dead silence, and then the Hall exploded, people scrambling to escape as fast as possible and seek refuge elsewhere in the castle. Faykan grabbed both Ron and Harry, forcing them roughly to remain seated just as Dumbledore bellowed for silence, causing the room to nearly shake from the magically amplified voice. A few people skidded to a stop, or veered sharply into walls or the massive doors of the hall in shock, but all eyes were upon the Headmaster in wake of his command. Harry wasn't sure what was more frightening, the troll or Dumbledore when he was passionately concerned, as the Headmaster had never raised his voice before in front of the students.

"Prefects," he said, much more calmly once silence had settled for a few solid seconds, "lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately. Slytherin House will remain here in the Great Hall for their own protection. Teachers, you will follow me to the dungeons immediately."

Dumbledore turned to glance at someone, and turning to look at the swift eye motion, Harry spied Professor Snape silently leaving out a side door while the rest of the teachers, following in the massive wake made by Dumbledore through the sea of standing students, quickly moved through the Hall and out towards the staircase leading down into the dungeons. As Percy, Ron's older brother who was himself a Prefect, barked for all the Gryffindors to follow him immediately, Harry moved to obey, but found Faykan's hand still on his and Ron's robe sleeves, "Hermione," he whispered urgently, "she doesn't know about the troll."

Ron paled with guilt, and Harry grew very serious at his best friend's words and silent command. Taking a quick look back where Snape had disappeared, Faykan stood, motioning for Harry and Ron to follow Percy out of the hall.

"I'm going to follow Snape, figure out a few things really quick. You two get Hermione to the common room. Be safe, nothing too reckless, please. I'll be back before you know it." He said, before stealthily making his way to the same door that Snape had taken. Harry and Ron shot each other a look of confusion regarding the importance of what Snape was doing, but then Percy barked out his commands once again, and the pair hurried to follow the group of Gryffindors led out of the Great Hall, making their attempt to separate from them at their first opportunity to go and search for Hermione.

The school was in so much chaos that no one even noticed them slip away by dodging into a line of Ravenclaws going a different direction, before doubling back to the lower floor that they had learned from Parvati that Hermione had last been seen on. Harry knew that technically they ought to be safe, but that didn't stop the strange sensation that something about to go very wrong from building up in his gut.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus Snape was following a hunch, encouraged by Albus, and was heading for the third floor. It had seemed _far_ too convenient for Quirrell to have not only missed the beginning of the Halloween Feast, but also to just happen to discover and escape from a random troll wandering in the dungeons of all locations. Not likely, or else Severus was a Hufflepuff with a massive urge to care for Potter's spawn.

Speeding off upward to the third floor, Severus merely hoped he was still ahead of the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor to catch him if he made a move for the Stone hidden within the gauntlet of obstacles hidden there, but, as he entered the corridor that led to the forbidden area, he stopped in confusion.

There was a strange black fox just sitting there in the forbidden corridor, appearing to be waiting patiently in the middle of the stone floor for anyone to approach, watching Severus with its small, strikingly crystal-blue eyes. Severus only had time to register that the creature was there and barely begin to ponder what the small animal could possibly be doing here of all places, when Quirrell came bounding in behind him, almost knocking him flat in his haste to reach the corridor.

"Oh, S-S-Severus, I… um," the man began, trying to catch his breath and appear innocent at the same time, but Severus cut him off, seeing through the façade.

"Ah, Quirrell, I had a thought I might meet you here of all places, when the troll is supposed to be rampaging in the dungeons." The Potions Master breathed icily, snatching a hold of the other professor, and holding him still.

The stuttering Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor teacher just gaped at Severus before glancing down the corridor at the far door then back at the Potions Master. "W-well I-I, j-just thought that it was r-rather strange that a t-troll could have entered the ca-castle so easily and…" he stammered rather sheepishly.

Severus was about to retort and call him out over the quite obvious lie, when they both looked down and noticed the fox had moved like lightning, and was currently at their feet. Both Professors stared at the small creature, utterly confused by its behavior. It was cautiously circling both men's legs, sniffing here and there as if it was seeking for a particular scent. First it would smell Severus, then Quirrell, and then move to a new position. Finally, after smelling a section of Quirrell's robes, it stopped and growled, backing away toward Severus and baring its teeth at the now cowering man.

"I believe we had better go join the Headmaster in the dungeon and look for that troll of yours," Severus began, taking Quirrell by the arm, but stopped abruptly as a scream echoed throughout the upper floors of the castle. The fox bolted immediately, heading of all placed toward the sound, rather than away from it, and Severus wasted no time dragging Quirrell along as he followed hot on the animal's heels.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry and Ron had found Hermione, but unfortunately she was not alone. Towering over her was a twelve foot tall, granite grey mountain troll, dragging a giant wooden club across the stone floor, cracks and fractures marring its surface with the club's weight and sending tiny shards flying in all directions. Hermione was pressed against the far wall with fright as the troll advanced on her, smashing sinks with every stride.

"Confuse it!" Harry yelled, immediately seizing a broken tap and throwing it with all his might at the troll's head. Unfortunately, the troll didn't even notice the metal striking him, but rather did turn to see what had made the noise when Harry had yelled. Once it spotted Harry, the troll turned and advanced angrily, raising its club high over its head with a roar of anger, preparing to smash Harry into a stain on the floor.

"Oy! Pea brain!" Ron yelled at it from another side of the destroyed bathroom, throwing chunks of broken porcelain at the walls, trying to make as much noise as possible. The troll spun around bewilderedly, giving Harry enough time to run around it and towards Hermione. She was far too terrified to even move on her own, let alone help, and Ron was running out of room to maneuver around the troll as it started toward him.

"Harry, do something!" he cried desperately, dodging as the club swung at him and getting wedged into the far corner, trapped against the troll's next attack.

Harry whipped out his wand and yelled the first spell that came to mind, " _Wingardium Leviosa_!"

The troll's club slid out of its hand as it was brought it crashing down towards Ron. The troll stopped, looked stupidly at its empty hand, and then raised its small head to look at its floating weapon, which promptly fell onto its face with a tremendous crack as Harry lost control of the spell.

It struck the troll hard in the face, but sadly this only succeeded at making the troll _very_ angry, and possibly blinding it in one eye from the immediate swelling and blood flowing freely from torn chunks of its face. Roaring in pain and anger, it started to smash and throw things around the room at random, not really hitting anything except the walls and damaged stalls.

Harry tried to drag Hermione toward the door, but a massive portion of the stalls was thrown in that direction, smashing at it struck the doors and creating a perfect barricade, trapping them inside with the troll. He turned back to face the creature, even as it rubbed vigorously at its eyes, trying to clear the blood, and grasped his wand until his hand turned white. It looked as though it would be the end for them, not even a month into his wonderful life.

Just as the troll turned and started to charge at him, the doors burst open with a deafening blast, sending the rubble piled against it flying across the bathroom and slamming into the walls above Harry and Hermione with an almighty crash, and a black blur dove into the room and suddenly _changed_. The thing, some sort of animal, elongated and stood onto its hind legs, which changed into a human's. Moments later, Faykan stood in the unknown creature's place, brandishing his wand like a sword.

Slashing the wand through the air at the troll, he bellowed out a spell, his voice sounding harsh and strong, despite the almost melodic nature of the words, " _'Ksh uuvanimo lanta ed' rutha en' i' giliath_ , _Valar Kalina_!"

Pure white light burst out of the wand's end, highlighting the troll like it was under a spotlight. Shielding its eyes and roaring in renewed agony, the troll stood rooted to the spot as it started to stiffen. Before anyone could as much as blink, the troll had turned completely to solid stone.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione stood gaping at Faykan and the now stone statue of a troll, completely dumbfounded at what their friend just did, and the dumbfounding questions of how that roared through their minds. Seconds later, Professor McGonagall came bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Professor Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll statue, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart and with his eyes wide with frightened shock.

Snape moved toward the statue immediately, inspecting what remained of the troll in utter silence, while Professor McGonagall looked between the four Gryffindors. If she didn't look so shocked at what they'd found, Harry could of have sworn she would have been exceptionally furious.

"Who did this?" she finally asked shakily, pointing at the statue hesitantly, as though partially not wanting to know the answer. Harry and Ron both shot Faykan an unconsciously long look, while Hermione said nothing, her eyes downcast. Professor McGonagall however was extremely sharp and observant, and easily followed Harry and Ron's eyes, finally focusing on Faykan, who still held his wand tightly in one hand, standing with his back straight and proper.

"Please explain just how this came to be, Mr. Undol." She said, forcing herself to sound calmer.

But Faykan just stood there silently, and the rest of the room stared at him completely lost for words. Even Snape was eyeing the other boy suspiciously. Then a small voice came from behind Harry, "Please, Professor, they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger?" she asked, turning back to look past Harry at the girl behind her.

Hermione had found her voice at last.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus watched in silence as Miss Granger told her story of how she had gone looking for the troll herself, only to be found and rescued by the three boys when she had metaphorically bitten off far more than she could handle.

However, personally, he didn't believe a word of it. Granger was far too intelligent to break rules so blatantly and follow after a dangerous mountain troll out of the blue, add to that that she had not been at the feast in the first place to learn of the loose creature, and the troll was stated to be in the dungeons rather than an upper floor. It just didn't add up anyway you looked at it. And then there was the way that Potter and Weasley were looking at her in utter surprise which proved its falsehood to him.

Minerva seemed to not be entirely convinced either, but merely deducted five points from Miss Granger, and sent her to her common room. The Head of Gryffindor seemed to understand the same thing that Severus did. The girl wouldn't lie like that without a very good reason, and there was no need to push her for information that she clearly wouldn't yield willingly.

"Well, I still say you three were extremely lucky." Minerva continued, turning to face the Gryffindor boys, who had grouped together nearer to the door. "Not many first years could have taken on a fully grown mountain troll and lived, let alone defeat it. You each will therefore, receive five points for Gryffindor, and Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You two," she indicated Potter and Weasley, "may go join you housemates in the common room, while you," indicating Undol, "must wait here, as we wish to discuss how you managed to do… this… to the troll in greater detail."

After a few uncomfortable minutes of the boy waiting on the toilet that Quirrell had vacated, the turbaned professor having been sent to fetch the Headmaster, Severus' mind was still reeling at what his eyes and wand were telling him. Somehow this boy had, firstly: known of mountain trolls' weaknesses to great sunlight, and secondly; had both known a spell that would summon light and had the power to cast such a strong spell to conjure the amount required to cause the troll to be forever transformed into stone.

How could someone that young have done this? Not even a seventh year graduate could have performed that powerful of a spell, let alone a first year. Severus knew that the boy's father would have been more than capable of such a feat, and it was a slim possibility that this young scion of the house of Undol could have been taught many advance and downright frightening magic, magic that Albus would have been more than desirous to lean if there was any chance of it aiding their fight against the Dark Lord and his servants. But, naturally the boy seemed none too willing to spill anything about how he had managed the feat, again, just as Severus expected his father would have been.

Severus itched to be allowed to speak with the boy himself, in a setting where he didn't have to portray the shallow selfish Slytherin that he was modeled to display for the children of the Death Eaters, as that might alone make it so that the boy would talk about his parents, but he conceded to wait for the Headmaster to arrive and speak with the boy personally. At least Severus now had rights to tell the old man 'I told you so,' regarding the whole affair with Faykan Undol, either generation.

They didn't have to wait too long, fortunately. Albus entered the bathroom swiftly, followed closely by Quirrell and Poppy Pomfrey, the school matron for the Hospital wing. As she looked the boy over for injuries, Albus came to speak directly with Severus. Running a hand over the stone statue that was once a living breathing troll, the Headmaster turned to Snape, eyes twinkling madly, "How has this happened, Severus?" he calmly inquired.

"Only the purest of light spell, at a high concentration well beyond most wizards' ability would have accomplished this, Headmaster." Severus replied, eyeing Undol over Albus' shoulder. "You will probably have to ask him for the details about how an eleven-year-old accomplished such a thing, however." the Potions Master added, nodding in the boy's direction, who was now struggling against Madam Pomfrey, who was trying to get the boy to remove his robes so she could inspect him closer for bruising or lacerations of any sort. Giving up at the fight he was giving her, she finally just waved her wand over the boy, taking quick magical scans of him, and confirmed that he was perfectly unharmed.

Finally turning to regard the boy before him with a calculating glance, Albus approached and kneeled down to be on eye level with the still seated Undol, who was refusing to meet the Headmaster's gaze, but rather watching his own hands as they rested in his lap.

"Mr. Undol, please tell us how you managed to cast such a powerful and indeed complex conjuration spell." Dumbledore asked in his calmest voice.

Still not looking up at him, Undol mumbled something in an undertone that Severus couldn't hear.

"What was that dear boy, I couldn't make that out." Albus stated, putting a hand comfortingly on the boy's shoulder, silently encouraging him to look up.

Undol spoke again, but still refused to look at the Headmaster's face, "I don't know, sir, I panicked and it just happened."

Severus snorted loudly, detecting the lie from a mile away, but Albus simply nodded absently.

"Well, if that's the case, and you don't have anything you wish to tell us…" he tipped Undol's chin upward, forcing the boy to look at him. The young Gryffindor shifted his eyes to look away from Professor Dumbledore, staring at the giant troll sculpture he had managed to create. "…then I don't see why you cannot return to your common room for the rest of the feast." Albus continued, smiling merrily before standing and leading the boy out of the bathroom, his arm casually guiding the boy by the shoulder.

As the boy quite literally dashed away, Dumbledore turned back to Severus, and the rest of the Professors departed to their respective offices to enjoy the remainder of the feast in private.

"Severus," he began, "I can sense something about that boy that he's trying with all his might to conceal from everyone, far beyond what happened in this bathroom."

"Headmaster, in all honesty I've noticed something to that effect since my first class with Mr. Undol." Severus replied, slightly sarcastic. Sometimes Albus could be painfully absentminded about these sorts of things.

"No, I mean he is deliberately concealing a fact about himself, some excruciatingly deep secret about himself." the older wizard continued. "Whatever it may be, he is definitely not an ordinary eleven year old boy, Severus. He knew that I was trying to enter his mind with legilimency to find the truth and not only did he refuse to grant me access, but his mind rejected every push that I attempted even without eye contact."

Severus paled; Dumbledore was one of the world's most powerful legilimens, and if this boy had power enough to resist Albus, what other secret abilities could he be hiding.

"We need to watch him carefully, Severus." Albus said flatly. "We need to find out his intentions, whether they are for good or ill…"

"I agree, Albus, although I must question why you think it's his intentions that are suspect, rather than what we could learn from him." Snape replied.

"Perhaps it is a bit of both," Albus countered, humming to himself as he departed from the bathroom, "have the elves repair the bathroom and remove this statue… I'm sure they'll find a place for it that is tasteful."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting mutely in one of the darker corners of the common room, trying to discuss among themselves in soft voices regarding what had occurred in the bathroom, while the Halloween Feast continued around them, the noise drowning out all ability for others to overhear them, when the portrait hole opened and Faykan came walking in.

"Hey, Undol, where've you been?" Fred or George called jovially over the crowd as Faykan ducked and weaved through the mass of students towards the stairs that led up to the boy's dormitories.

"Oh, nowhere important, you know," he replied dismissively as he ran up the stairs and out of sight, ignoring several attempts to call him back to join the party.

"Follow him," Harry said determinedly, and the three first years weaved through the partying Gryffindors and up the stairs to the first year boy's dormitory. Closing the door behind them after ensuring their privacy, Harry turned to see Ron and Hermione standing next to Faykan's bed, looking at the boy who was seated on the end facing the central heating system for the room, staring into the flames that crackled merrily.

The boy was actually mumbling to himself, something that sounded like a poem, " _I sit beside the fire and think, of all that I have seen. Of meadow-flowers and butterflies, in summers that have been_ …"

"Fay," Ron said softly, but the boy all but ignored him, eyes only twitching slightly as he registered the noise and continued the poem.

"… _Of yellow leaves and gossamer, in autumns that there were, with morning mist and silver sun, and wind upon my hair_ ," he partially chanted, partially sang.

"We want to talk to you." Hermione added, placing a hand on his shoulder, which was jerked out of her grasp as the boy snapped back to the present, looking up at the three of them wildly, mistrust and a shadow of fear evident in his eyes.

"What do you want?" Faykan said stiffly.

"We just want to know what happened…" Hermione began, but Harry finished for her with "…after we left." He wanted to start with the information that the Professors had received first, before asking the 'whys'.

Faykan grunted, turning back to face his pillow "Nothing. Snape sent for Dumbledore and they tried to get me to talk about what happened with the troll."

"And, what did you tell him?" Hermione pressed, leaning back against the bedposts, getting comfortable as it appeared that getting information from Fay would prove difficult.

"Nothing," he replied, "and thankfully he didn't try harder to press me into talking." the boy added with a not very subtle hint.

"So, can we ask you some things about it then?" Hermione asked in a soft voice, seeking permission.

Another grunt, "Only if I can refuse to answer." he retorted flatly.

"Of course, Fay, we'd never force you to talk about things you didn't want to." Harry assured him.

"But," Hermione added, "we do have a right to know…"

Faykan grunted again, brow furrowed in displeasure, "fine," was all he said in affirmation.

Ron went to watch the door and make sure no one burst in unexpectedly, while Harry went to join Hermione next to Faykan, who sighed deeply and laid back onto his own bed. Harry winced when he saw his friend's shirt ride up slightly, revealing a large white scar on Faykan's ribcage that Harry was sure he'd never noticed before. He realized then that for the three years that he'd known the boy, he truly didn't know a lot about him. It was past time for that to change.

"So, where do you want to start?" Faykan said in a dull tone.

Looking at Harry momentarily, Hermione cleared her throat, "How did you change from a fox when you entered the bathroom?" Harry widened his eyes at that. He hadn't noticed _that_ happening; he was too busy protecting Hermione from the troll at the time.

"I'm an animagus; I can turn into a fox at will. That's how I've been getting around the school after hours without being caught." Faykan explained, resigned to the interrogation.

Ron raised his eyebrows. "Wow, that's really cool." Faykan smiled at his praise, but turned back as Hermione pressed on with her questioning.

"And, these marks on your back, they're ritual tattoos aren't they?" she asked, which Harry was even more surprised by. Very few actually had noticed the marks aside from when he had his shirt off, and even then that was limited to the boys in their year, who knew better than to ask questions, as much as they clearly wanted to.

"I figured you out of all the other students would notice," Faykan said, flashing a brief half smile before sitting up, unbuttoning his shirt and sliding out of his robe. Hermione gasped softly as he slid the shirt up and she got to look at Faykan's markings and near runic-like script fully displayed across his bare back for the first time.

"Yes," he admitted, "they are the markings of an ancient magic enhancing ritual my family participated in. They are called the Veneficium, or Marks of Sorcery. They have been passed down from the earliest generation of my family, who were close to the mighty Istari, or the first wizards in ancient eras." Hermione made a soft 'Oh…' and didn't ask anything more.

"What was that you blasted the troll with that made it turn to stone?" Ron asked from across the room.

"Pure sunlight," Faykan replied without looking up. "Trolls are naturally adverse to it, and if they are surrounded with enough they will turn to stone."

"How do you know all this advanced magic?" Harry finally asked.

"That, my dear friends, is one of the questions I cannot completely answer just yet. I will tell you all in due time, I promise, but just not now, it's not safe to reveal too must just yet." Faykan replied with a heavy sigh. "What I can tell you is that I have many enemies, who would kill me to learn even a fraction of my family's secrets. The Veneficium are but one of these. They contribute to my magical strength. I try very hard to not show off as much as I can to not draw attention to them, not that I can manage that too easily," he added with a wry smile.

"These enemies," Harry asked, wanting to know more of his best friend's background, "are they why you moved in with Mrs. Figg so long ago?"

"That and several other reasons," Faykan replied, but he held up his hand as Harry started to ask another question, "I've already said a great deal more than I wished to, as there are techniques that other wizards know that will take the information from your minds, but I cannot properly help you protect them with how young we all are, so I have to refrain from saying anything else until then…"

Harry knew that they had gotten as much out of him as they were going to, so he didn't press it any further. He patted Faykan on the shoulder as the boy sat down again. "Thank you for trusting us with that much. I know it must be a big risk for you to let us know these things, but we appreciate it."

"We promise," Hermione added, looking at Harry and Ron, "your secrets will be safe with us, and we won't even discuss them unless you say we may."

Faykan smiled at her, sighed again slightly and turned back to return his gaze to the fire in the central heater. Harry got up, as well as Ron, escorting Hermione to the door so she could leave for the girl's dormitory, and that they could return to the party downstairs, they hadn't got much food back in the Great Hall anyway.

"Thank you." Faykan said as they pulled the door open. Harry turned back as he pulled the door closed and overheard Faykan continuing more of the poem he had been reciting earlier, " _I sit beside the fire and think, of how the world will be, when winter comes without a spring, that I shall ever see_ …"

Harry could tell that Hermione was really happy that they were all her friends now, as she happily bid them goodnight and went up to the girl's dormitory minutes later. He could also tell that she was going to be a true friend in return to the three Gryffindor boys from here on. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and defeating a twelve foot mountain troll is one of them.

 _ksh uuvanimo lanta ed' rutha en' i' giliath,_ _Valar Kalina_ _! : evil monster fall by anger of the stars, light of the Valar!_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

 _So, once again I changed the title of the chapter, as I greatly felt that this out of all the previous chapters required it. again there was some content shuffle, as the chapter had grown extremely long, so I had things moved to the previous chapter to help cut down size, as I noted in the previous chapter._

 _continually working to increase what harry notices regarding faykan to a more realistic level, as it was quite apparent that he was missing some of the more obvious signs early on that things weren't as they had appeared._

 _there was a small increase to the first Hermione section, that added a bit to not make it seem that he was out to get faykan as much, but simply idly curious and concerned, which matched her character better this early on._

 _added features to the encounters before and during the troll scene, for a bit of flavor. and the meat of the changes were during the final scene, as I had always found that original section somewhat flatter than what I had intended, even though nothing of substance was revealed, as of yet... too early for any of that fun stuff..._

 _Not much of me trying to be entertaining with this post, as I'm rather miserably sick and not much in the mood for levity based writing..._

 _~F_


	9. Y1-C8: Christmas

_There is a poll on my profile page, I would recommend all go and vote for the top 3 stories that I have not posted that they would like to see in the future, just a little something to help me get on top of what stories to full blown work on when me main runners are completed! Thanks for that and enjoy the Chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Eight**

 **Christmas**

The morning of the first Quidditch match of the season found Hermione, Faykan, Ron along with Harry down at the Gryffindor table bright and early, his three Gryffindor friends trying to coax him to eat before the game that afternoon.

"You've got to eat something Harry." Faykan was saying, serving a plate of eggs in front of his friend.

"I don't want anything." Harry replied, shoving the plate away with near disgust at the thought of food. Nerves were causing him to feel nauseated, and eating was the last idea on his mind.

"Just a bit of toast then," Hermione said, offering Harry a piece from her plate.

"I'm not hungry." He persisted, pushing her hand back to remove the offending piece of food from where he could smell it specifically as his stomach rolled again in protest at the thought.

Ron was about to add his two knuts on the matter of food, when a cold voice sounded right behind Harry, making them all jump. "Good luck today, Potter." They turned to see Professor Snape standing there smirking down at them all. "Though after a run-in with a mountain troll, a little game of Quidditch should be quite simple," he sneered and walked off. Faykan watched the Potions Master's retreating form until he was out of sight, and then turned back to the other three.

"I just remembered that I failed to mention anything about where I went off to when you went to find Hermione." He explained, "When I followed Snape on Halloween, he went straight to the third floor, luckily I was transformed so he didn't recognize me, but right after he arrived so did Quirrell. I think, I'm not sure, but one or the other was using the troll as a distraction to get past that three headed dog." He whispered conspiratorially.

Hermione frowned at that, but said nothing, as Ron had launched into a rant about how Snape must have been the one trying to steal whatever the dog was guarding.

"I'm not so sure Ron," Faykan said, "Snape looked pleased to have beaten Quirrell there and Quirrell did smell extremely like a troll..."

Ron and Faykan argued the point for the next several minutes, and Harry allowed himself to be sucked into their argument, trying to forget about the Quidditch game that would take place in only a few more hours.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

After the very exciting, yet extremely terrifying game of Quidditch, the four Gryffindors were in Hagrid's hut, discussing the events of the game. Gryffindor had won outright, but in the midst of the game Harry's broom had begun bucking wildly, seemingly of its own accord, trying to throw him to his death from high above the match.

Only the combined efforts of Faykan and Hermione had managed to keep Harry on his broom, through Faykan muttering a counter jinx while Hermione ran and stopped Snape by setting his robes on fire, breaking his eye contact and severing his ability to further jinx Harry's broom.

She was still shook up about all the chaos that occurred, and it more than solidified to her that the one flying lesson was more than enough for her to want to keep both feet firmly on the ground for the rest of her life.

Afterward, Faykan had finally acquiesced to Ron that the red head may have had a point about Snape wanting to steal whatever the dog was guarding, in light of the evidence, however Faykan still held his suspicions of Quirrell, who had also been spotted staring intently at Harry's broom during the incident, and had been shoved aside by Hermione in her haste to reach Snape. At the mention of the three headed dog, Hagrid piped up,

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he practically demanded to know, dropping his teapot.

Faykan repaired the teapot with a wave of his hand while Hermione distracted Hagrid, asking more about the dog, "Fluffy, that thing has a name?"

"Cours' he does, he's mine," Hagrid said proudly, "I bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year. Then I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the…"

"Yes?" Harry said eagerly, and Hermione could tell that he wanted information just as much as she and Faykan did. It was his life that had been on the line not hours earlier.

"No, don't ask me anymore, that's top secret that is." Hagrid said gruffly, clamming up instantly.

"But whatever it is, Snape's trying to steal it," Ron added urgently.

"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher; he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he try to kill Harry?" countered Hermione, working with what the others were giving her to try and back Hagrid into a corner and force him reveal something else, something that might be useful.

The afternoon's events certainly had enough of an effect to even have changed her mind about Snape. It was possible, but she was willing to go along with it to try and weed out a bit more of the mystery with a useful tip from Hagrid. Faykan glanced at her with a small look of betrayal that she was no longer fully backing his notion that it could be someone other than Snape.

"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid; I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!" she continued, defending herself from the hurt look that Faykan was giving her as well as the unconvinced one from the large man.

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all four of yeh; yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous, you forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel…"

"Aha!" said Faykan, smirking in triumph, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"

Hagrid shooed them out at that, constantly repeating 'I shouldn' told yeh that.'

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was greatly looking forward to the Christmas holiday, because for once, he wasn't going to be stuck at his father's manor, he was planning to stay at Hogwarts. He had overheard that Harry, Ron, and Faykan were going to be staying at the school over the holiday, and decided on his own that he would use the extra free time to become more familiar with the three Gryffindors. Faykan seemed to genuinely like Draco, and Harry was warmly civil most of the time, but Ron still seemed to distrust the Slytherin, if only on principle, so Harry generally chose to just keep the two boys apart as much as possible for the sake of peace between them all.

Draco was sitting on the edge of the Slytherin group in the Potion's classroom, nearest the Gryffindors. He could see Harry and Faykan talking in low voices every time Snape turned his back to them, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Nott had earlier mentioned quite loudly, how much he felt 'sorry' for everyone who had to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays, all the while pointedly looking at Harry and Faykan. Harry just ignored him, choosing to pay attention to the powdered spine of lionfish he was measuring, but Faykan shot a death glare in Nott's direction, who only sneered in return.

Nott had become a real arse to the Gryffindor first years ever since the Quidditch match, comparing Harry to a wide-mouthed tree frog (because of how Harry had caught the snitch,) and anything else his little mind could think of. Thankfully he'd quickly realized that not many people found this funny, as they were too impressed that Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick, which everyone had noticed, even if they hadn't done anything about it. So Nott used his fallback plan of mocking Harry and Faykan about their lack of families. ' _So childish_ ,' Draco thought.

After the Potions class, where Snape docked another five points from Gryffindor for no reason whatsoever, Draco followed the four Gryffindors up to the library, skirting past Hagrid in the entrance hall as he delivered a giant Christmas tree for the Great Hall. He entered the library just to see them split up and gather books from every corner of the library, finally setting them down at a table in a secluded corner to browse them. Moving closer, Draco could tell that none of these books had anything to do with their current subjects, which only perked his interest more.

"Hey," Faykan said to Draco as the Slytherin sat down next to the shorter boy.

"What are you all up too?" Draco inquired, looking from Hermione to Harry, who both had their noses in books, scanning through them quickly.

Hermione looked at Draco, glanced at Faykan, who nodded at her and, returning to Draco, she said, "Were looking for information on Nicholas Flamel."

"Why would you be looking for something like that?" Draco asked puzzled. Ron shot him a look of impatience and returned to the essay he was writing. Faykan quietly started explaining everything they had seen and heard concerning the three headed dog named Fluffy, the troll attack, although he seemed to leave a large section of information out regarding how that had come to pass, all cumulating in their suspicions of Snape or Quirrell.

"There's no way its Snape," Draco said vehemently, "I mean, sure he's mean to non-Slytherins but he wouldn't go against something Dumbledore is trying to accomplish." Ron huffed in a defiant sort of way, and Draco shot the red haired Weasley an angry look.

Just at that time, Madam Pince, the librarian, walked over and started dusting around their study table. Faykan and Hermione glanced at her and after motioning to the rest, got up and led Draco out of the library. Hermione explained to Draco that they didn't want to raise the suspicions of whomever it was trying to steal the stone by asking around for the information. Draco could see the sense in that, and had to admit that for Gryffindors, these four were showing a lot of Slytherin cunning in their investigation.

"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" said Hermione to the three Gryffindor boys. "And make sure to send me an owl if you find anything."

They all agreed, naturally, and Draco knew that this would be the best way to get into all of their good graces. If he found the needed clue regarding Nicolas Flamel, then even Weasley would have to accept him as one of them, without a doubt.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

After Hermione had left, Harry, Ron, Faykan decided that they were going to take a short break from searching for Nicholas Flamel and enjoy the holidays for a while. The Gryffindor common room was almost completely deserted all day long, and the three boys had their dormitory all to themselves.

Harry was being taught wizard chess by both Ron and Draco, much to Faykan's sole amusement, as the other two boys seemed to get into their own highly competitive matches after arguing about tactics every time.

Harry picked up the game rather easily, but was no match for either Ron or Draco, whose matches could go on for hours before either of them conceded defeat. Faykan was good, better than Harry at least, but wasn't in the same league as either Ron or Draco, although Harry had a suspicion that the other boy was holding back so that Ron and Draco could have the limelight. Fay tended to just like to watch Harry struggle through his games with one of the other two, occasionally throwing out suggestions here and there.

On Christmas Eve, Harry went to bed easily, looking forward to the next day for the food and fun, but not expecting any presents at all. When he woke early in the morning however, the first thing he noticed was the small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.

"Merry Christmas Harry," Faykan said, sitting on the foot of his bed, already awake with a slightly smaller handful of presents settled on his lap. Looking over at Ron, who was still asleep, Faykan and Harry grinned to each other, exited their own beds and crept over to Ron's, and swiftly jumped onto the sleeping boy, startling him awake.

"Bloody hell! What's wrong with you guys?" Ron yelled as they dragged him out of his bed and around to his pile of presents.

"Nothing Ron," Faykan said, grinning widely, "we were worried that you might have died in your sleep, as you were not wide awake on Christmas morning like normal wizards."

"Shove off," Ron retorted, but he clearly didn't have any anger in the retort. His eyes were locked on his sizeable pile of presents.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, Harry watched his two best friends as they opened their first few presents. He had received a handsome feather quill from Faykan, as well as a selection of chocolate and candy from Ron, which went more or less in step with what he had gotten the other two. Their choices had been limited, as they hadn't been able to actually leave the castle grounds to purchase presents or the like, so no one made a fuss about what they received.

Harry was about to start getting dressed, without finishing his present opening, when he caught sight of Faykan reading a letter attached to one of his gifts. In his other hand was a small box that had been wrapped in strange silver white paper that seemed to create its own light.

Walking over, and knowing full well that it was prying to try and read part of the note that went with it, Harry couldn't help himself as he leaned in closer. But to his surprise, the writing on the parchment was such that he could not make heads or tails of it, aside that it was something clearly not English.

Opening the wooden box within that had a large runic symbol on the top, Faykan pulled out a small golden ring, set with a large red jewel, which seemed to flicker with its own inner fire, and as Harry looked at it, he felt an aura of calmness surround him.

Ron seemed to have noticed the change in the air as well. They both gathered around Faykan's ring to get a closer look at it, which seemed to have the same heartwarming effect on everyone around him.

"Wow, that's really cool, Fay." Ron said after a few moments of peaceful silence. "Who sent it to you?"

"An old family friend," Faykan said, as he slipped the ring on his left forefinger and quickly looked away, tucking the piece of parchment that had accompanied the ring away, but Harry could see tears in his eyes.

Harry finally turned to his own presents. Picking up the top parcel, Harry saw that written across it was _To Harry, from Hagrid_. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry blew it, and heard that it sounded a bit like an owl. Harry ignored the small fifty pence piece from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, tossing to Ron who was fascinated by it.

Faykan, who was now eating a chocolate frog he got in a package from Hermione, picked up a strange lumpy parcel. "Who sent this?" he thought out loud, tossing it from hand to hand as he tried to make out what was hidden within.

Ron went slightly pink as he saw the package in Faykan's hand. Harry looked at his pile to find a similar one with his name on it. "I think I know who those are from," Ron said, "My mum. I told her you two didn't expect a lot of presents and, oh, no." he groaned loudly, "she made both of you Weasley sweaters."

Harry had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand knitted sweater in emerald green, and a large box of homemade fudge. Looking up at Faykan, he saw that the other boy had received the same thing, except his sweater was a deep blue.

Ron opened his own sweater, while explaining "Every year she makes us a sweater, or sometime a scarf, and mines always maroon," he added glumly.

"Well, Ron, you tell her for me that I love mine." Faykan said, smiling brightly as he pulled the sweater on.

"That's really nice for her," Harry said, tasting the fudge, which was quite excellent.

After opening his own box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione, Harry picked up his last present, which was very light. As he unwrapped it, something fluid and silvery gray slithered to the floor and laid there in gleaming folds. Ron gasped and Faykan widened his eyes. "I know what that is," he said breathily, "That's an invisibility cloak,"

"A what?" Harry asked, picking the shining, silver cloth off the floor. It felt strange, like water woven into material.

"An invisibility clock," Faykan persisted, while Ron had a look of awe on his face, "I'm sure it is, go ahead try it on."

Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ron gave a yell, while Faykan beamed at him. Looking down at his feet, Harry gasped when he found that they were gone. He dashed to the mirror and, sure enough, his floating head's reflection stared back at him. He pulled the cloak over his head and his reflection disappeared entirely.

"There's a note!" said Ron suddenly. "A note fell out of it Harry!"

Harry pulled off the cloak and seized the letter. Written in narrow, loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words:

' _Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you.'_

Whoever had sent the cloak to Harry, hadn't signed the note. Harry felt strange, who had sent him the cloak? And had it truly belonged to his father?

But before Harry could voice any of his questions aloud, Fred and George Weasley flung the door open and bounded into their dorm. Harry stuffed the cloak out of sight, not feeling like sharing it with anyone else just yet.

"Merry Christmas!" Fred proclaimed happily.

"Hey Fred, look, Faykan and Harry have Weasley sweaters too!"

Both Fred and George were also wearing bright blue sweaters, one with a large yellow F and the other with a G.

Theirs are better than ours, though," said Fred, picking at Faykan sweater. "Mum must make more of an effort if you're not family."

The twins then went about examining the three boys presents, after egging Ron into pulling his maroon sweater on. When Percy made an appearance, the twins literally pounced on him, pulling Percy's carried sweater over his head forcefully and frog marching him from the dorm, berating him about sitting with the family that evening at dinner, leaving the three first years alone again.

Harry had never in all his life had such a wonderful Christmas dinner as he had that year at Hogwarts. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Faykan and it went off with a blast like cannon fire and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.

Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice. Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally stooping to kiss Professor McGonagall on the cheek, which, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.

When Harry finally left the table, he was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of nonexplodable, luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, and his own brand new wizard chess set. The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner.

After a furious snowball fight that included Harry, Faykan, Draco and the Weasleys, they all returned to the warmth of the castle, the Gryffindors still laughing at how soaked the one Slytherin had become, as they had all teamed up on him at one point. It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of his mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed that night was he free to think about it; the invisibility cloak and whoever had sent it.

Ron, full of turkey and cake had drifted off immediately after he had drawn the curtains of his four-poster. Pulling the cloak out, Harry suddenly felt wide awake, as excitement poured through his body. He could go anywhere, without Filch or anyone else ever knowing.

He was startled out of his thoughts when Faykan spoke from his bed, "Wonderful feeling, isn't it. To be able to go anywhere you want, when you want. No restrictions." Turning to face him, Harry saw he was sitting on the side of his bed, fully dressed, staring at Harry.

"You want to go out tonight Harry, don't you?" he said, grinning.

"Yeah, I do, kind of." Harry replied.

"Let's do it then, C'mon." He said standing and moving stealthily to the dormitory door. Harry took one last look at Ron, who just grunted in his sleep, and decided he wanted to use the cloak alone for his first trip. Silently, he followed Faykan down to the common room, and out through the portrait hole, pulling the cloak on at the same time Faykan transformed into a large black fox.

The Fat Lady was fast asleep, and therefore didn't even notice them leaving down the corridor. As Harry followed Faykan the fox, he wondered where his friend was leading him too, as they weren't going anywhere that he recognized; it was very hard to tell where they were because Faykan kept leading him through many secret passages that Harry never knew about. Harry took the time during his journey to study Faykan's animagus form, he really was a superb fox after all, jet black with long grey streaks like his tattoos running down his back, ending at the tip of his tail. Each leg was grey also and his eyes were the same strong blue color that his human form had.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted when a piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence, ringing up and down the corridor. Harry and Faykan just froze, knowing that they wouldn't be seen if they remained motionless. Soon Harry heard rushing footsteps approaching, and he watched as Draco Malfoy sped right into him from around a corner.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was terrified, not only was he almost caught by Filch when he was looking at books in the restricted section, but now he was lost and had run into a solid something that knocked him to the floor. He almost screamed, but just them a familiar fox jumped onto his chest and he heard a voice from the corridor ahead.

"Ouch, Draco what are you doing out this late?" a voice that sounded like Harry said, but it was coming out of thin air.

"Ok, that it, I'm losing my mind." Draco said to the fox, starting to hyperventilate at the sheer insanity that was his last twenty minutes, "first screaming books, now talking foxes…" Then suddenly, Harry Potter's head appeared out of thin air. Draco's eye bulged and his mouth dropped to the floor. Harry looked up, past Draco as he heard footsteps coming from where Draco has ran from, and Draco saw Harry removed a shimmering cloak from around him, pull Draco to his feet, and throw it around their shoulders. The fox then dove to the other side of the corridor, and Harry dragged Draco right behind it.

No sooner had they moved out of the corridor than Snape and Filch came skittering around the corner, talking in hushed whispers,

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the Restricted Section of the library." Filch said excitedly to Snape as they hurried along, eager to catch whoever they suspected was out and about.

Harry put one hand over Draco's mouth, and used the other to guide him backward, away from Filch and Snape, and toward an opened door that the fox was creeping toward in the shadows. After the Potions Master and the caretaker passed the classroom they were hiding in, Harry released Draco and closed the door with a soft click that still made Draco flinch at the slight noise. Pulling off the cloak from them both, Draco gaped at Harry, not able to form any words for several seconds.

"Draco, calm down," Harry said slowly, motioning Draco to sit down in an unused desk, and sitting next to him. The fox jumped onto Draco's lap and rubbed itself against his chest, comforting him. Moments later, Draco finally found his voice, "Harry, how… you were moving around the corridor invisibly?"

Holding up an Invisibility cloak, Harry explained, "I received this as a Christmas gift, don't ask who from I don't know, but I just had to try it out as soon as I could, and I got led here… But what were you doing, running through the corridors like the Bloody Baron was chasing you?"

Draco sighed as he admitted, "I've been searching the library, every day since Hermione left, hoping that I'd be the one to find anything about Nicholas Flamel."

"But why?" Harry pressed, "You knew we were all taking a break."

Draco flushed a bit more, but had little choice but to speak the truth, "I was hoping that, if I was the one to find out the information, that you'd all like me better, and maybe even start including me more in your activities. I feel like I'm the odd one out all the time, just because of what house I was sorted into."

"…oh," Harry said, sounding honestly quite surprised, and perhaps a bit guilty and uncomfortable. Draco continued, explaining that he had been looking through the Restricted Section that night and had accidentally opened a book that had literally screamed and, not wanting to be caught be Filch, he had bolted out of the library immediately, running into Harry after bypassing several corridors in his mad dash.

"And you know the rest," Draco finished, even as the fox leapt from Draco to the stone floor and started walking around to the other side of the classroom. Draco and Harry followed it with their eyes, before finally settling on a large mirror they hadn't noticed earlier because of their distress at escaping Snape and Filch.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: _'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.'_ Draco watched as the fox moved directly in front of the mirror, and he almost yelled out in surprise when the fox morphed into Faykan. Turning his back on the mirror, he regarded Draco's look of utter shock, "Hello Draco…" He said with a wide grin.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry walked over to the mirror Faykan changed in front of while the other boy explained his animagus abilities to Draco, who looked like he was going to faint after all the revelations of this night. Stepping in front of the mirror, Harry gasped out loud, drawing the attention of the two other boys.

A woman was standing right behind his reflection in the mirror and was smiling at him and waving. She was a very pretty woman, with dark red hair and her eyes, her eyes were just like Harry's. They were bright green, exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just as Harry's did. Harry edged so close to the mirror that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection.

"Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?"

Faykan and Draco moved over to Harry, Faykan putting a hand on his shoulder. Harry looked at him, but his eyes were also on the mirror, deep sadness behind the blue orbs.

"Fay, can you see them too?" he asked tentatively.

"No Harry, they are for your eyes only in this mirror," he answered sorrowfully. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he continued, "This mirror, it shows the viewer only their heart's deepest desire. Nothing of substance, and only a deep yearning forms when one looks too long. Harry, I presume you see your family don't you," Harry nodded, still watching them surrounding his reflection. Faykan turned him so that Harry was looking right into Faykan's bright blue eyes with his back to the mirror, "This mirror will destroy anyone who watches too long, Harry. I want you to promise me, that you will never come to look for it again once you and Draco leave."

"But what about…" Harry began.

"Promise me." Faykan cut him off. Draco just stood back, not wanting to look in the mirror or disturb the two Gryffindors.

"I promise." Harry said softly, taking one long, last look at the faces of his parents, and he turned to Draco, "We should probably get back to our common rooms," he said and they both left, Harry draping his invisibility cloak over them both as they opened the door.

Harry was very concerned at why Faykan was suddenly so knowledgeable about a thing they had just encountered. Did it have to do with that information that he couldn't discuss with them yet? There were so many questions that he wanted answers for, and it was starting to grow infuriating that he couldn't get them in a timely manner.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

As the two first year boys left, Albus Dumbledore watched from under his powerful disillusionment charm as Faykan turned to look at the mirror once more. After a few silent moments he spoke to the empty room, "You can reveal yourself, Professor Dumbledore, I know you are there."

This managed to actually surprise Albus, and he emerged from hiding without even trying to pretend to not be there. "I apologize for not announcing myself, Mr. Undol, but it seemed to be most prudent at the time." Albus began slowly but stopped as he saw the boy was still looking in the mirror.

"So," he continued after watching Mr. Undol for a moment in respective silence, slipping off the desk to stand next to the younger boy, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"The delights," Faykan said, huffing slightly, "You mean the trap, _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_ : I show not your face but your heart's desire… it's not a very complicated snare, is it Professor." Albus stood silently, watching as the boy painfully tore his gaze from the mirror again to face him.

"I certainly hope you plan on removing this mirror before school resumes, most likely to the third floor if I'm not mistaking, Professor." Faykan said, shooting a glance at the mirror again in disdain.

"Ah, so you were able to piece together that part of the puzzle also were you?" Albus said calmly, but Mr. Undol was already moving towards the door.

"One more moment if you please, Faykan," the Headmaster said, calling the boy back. Faykan turned and stood, waiting for Albus to ask his question, "I presumed that Harry could only have seen his family in the mirror, but I was wondering, if I might be so bold as to ask what you see in the mirror?" he asked finally.

The boy actually smiled as he watched Albus, "White shores… and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

"I'm sorry, but that could mean all sorts of things…" Albus said, pressing only slightly with his legilimency to try and see into the boy's mind.

Surprisingly, once again he was completely blocked from observing a single thought of the boy's mind, and in addition, instead of simply answering his question, Faykan started to sing, some long forgotten tune whose words haunted and chilled Albus to the core, despite their words being utterly foreign to him. There was a beauty within the melody and words, and yet there was no comfort to be found within the tone of sadness and longing.

" _Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen, yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron! Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier mi oromardi lisse-miruvóreva Andúnë pella , Vardo tellumar nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni ómaryo airetári -lírinen.Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva? An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë, ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë; ar sindanóriello caita mornië i falmalinnar imbë met, ar hísië untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë. Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar! Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar. Nai elyë hiruva. Namárië!_ "

Afterward, the boy simply turned, transformed into his fox animagus form that Albus had already seen when the three boys had entered, and departed the abandoned classroom, presumably bound for Gryffindor tower, leaving the most powerful wizard of the age with a solitary piece of his puzzle that the Headmaster couldn't yet solve.

It was still shocking to think that the boy was already so powerful, and yet it was nothing to be unusual of the scion of House Undol, whose parentage were reported to be among the most magically powerful and wise of Britain, if not the world.

Albus stayed in the room with mirror for several long minutes, mulling over the new information that he had received that night alone. An animagus, the boy was an animagus! A very powerful amount of transfiguration, did Minerva say he was gifted with that aspect of magic? In addition, wisdom and cleverness well beyond wizards five times his age. Albus figured not even Voldemort would have guessed the purpose of the Mirror so quickly, but this young first year had managed it within minutes of gazing at it. And then there was the song he had sung.

He had heard those sorts of words before, so very long ago, and the importance of such things being so casually used frightened Albus to no end. They were an ancient language of power and majesty, to be respected by all wizard kind, although only a few still remembered them, and even less had heard them spoken, and fewer still to understand them. For a simple first year to understand their meaning, and be able to fluently speak these words of power was impossible. At the least it confirmed what Severus had strongly suspected from the beginning, and Albus had no rights to deny it any longer.

Finally there was the mystery of what the boy described as his deepest desire. Albus thought hard for minutes, until the thought struck him like the metaphorical thunderbolt from the heavens. "Home…" he said aloud. Whatever the boy had described, it had the distinct feeling of home to it. The boy wanted to go home. Did that mean he was not comfortable at Hogwarts? Albus severely doubted that it referred to simple homesickness; the boy was too complicated for that as it was.

This was something far deeper, a longing almost, for something unattainable. Perhaps it was more of an all encompassing idea. Wasn't the boy an orphan like Harry, yet unlike Harry he had known his family. Albus nodded, that was a distinct probability. The boy had strong kinship with Harry because of what they had both suffered. But what fate had drawn them together in such a manner, and what was this home that the boy was longing for?

Perhaps some research into the line of the Undol family would yield some answers to what young Faykan was missing so terribly. Albus' heart panged for the two boys. If, just maybe, if he was to help ease the pain in Undol's own heart, he could recruit a powerful ally to defend Harry from the wrath of Voldemort, until the prophecy could be fulfilled.

 _Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind, long years numberless as the wings of trees! The long years have passed like swift draughts of the sweet mead in lofty halls beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda wherein the stars tremble in the voice of her song, holy and queenly. Who now shall refill the cup for me For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the stars, from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds and all paths are drowned deep in shadow; and out of a grey country darkness lies on the foaming waves between us, and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya forever. Now lost, lost to those of the East is Valimar! Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar! Maybe even thou shalt find it! Farewell!_

 **Spoilers ahead, you have been warned!**

 _So, I am rather concerned at the lack of reviews that the story has been generating the last month or so, but regardless I will push on, I just hope for a bit more feedback, as that was a large part of the reason for this remake of the story. Perhaps it was just a busy month and I am overreacting, but a small amount of reassurance would not be amiss..._

 _anyway, getting past myself for a bit, the Chapter... Again I chose to more or less skip the Quidditch match, as I felt that there wouldn't have been anything new to add to the events, which couldn't be easily covered after the fact, such as Faykan assisting to counter the curse on Harry's broom, etc._

 _The Hagrid's hut scene I tweaked just slight, only enough to imply that Faykan and Hermione together were trying to pressure Hagrid into letting something slip intentionally, rather than it just accidentally falling into their lap._

 _Small expansion on the Draco pre-Christmas segment, (btw, does anyone know what the explination for why wizards celebrated Christmas was, I don't think there was a decent one given by Rowling) mainly flushing out his growing role, or desires for such, among the group._

 _Christmas day, I didn't like that more than Ron and Harry saw Faykan aquire the Ring of Fire, Narya, as it made no sense for the Twins or anyone else to appreciate it, especially when it vanishes from sight after he puts it on and everyone's attention leaves it, as one of the Three would do._

 _Great expansion throughout the mirror scene, both before and during, as well as adding the song at the end. I've really gotten more of a kick out of the music of LotR lately, so I went about adding more music from those ages into the story, as they add an extra depth of history, as what out of a culture would prevail more than music? Keep an eye out more even of the songs and lays of Middle Earth as the story progresses. I do try to keep them relevant to the situation at least, so they won't be out of the blue songs, and I would welcome people asking about the titles of ones that I chose, where they come from and how they apply, as that would likely be a deeper section than what you would read from just this story._

 _For example, the song at the end of this chapter was sung originally by the Lady Galadriel, regarding her longing for the shores of Valinor. T_ _hink on that one for a bit as to why Faykan would be singing it, and have a wonderful evening._

 _~F_


	10. Y1-C9: Of Alchemists and Dragons

_Many thanks to those who voted in the poll, I am greatly pleased by the reception that it provided, and will be leaving it up for another 2 weeks to catch any stragglers that may have not voted as of yet. As it stands however, I was most surprised at the 1st place entry, as it was not one that I had presumed to be particularly interesting, but the pair of runner-ups were more predictable in my opinion, and had already been started on at a previous time._

 _Still, soon I will have a fully solid idea of where to proceed when my other stories are finished and locked away, and we will have great and plentiful stories to occupy us for much time to come. Enjoy the new Chapter, overview at the end as usual, ~F_

 **Chapter Nine**

 **Of Alchemists and Dragons**

Despite Harry's promise to Faykan to not look for the mirror again, he was sorely tempted too. He found that he couldn't forget his parent's faces and he was starting to be haunted by nightmares of them disappearing in a flash of green light, while a high cold voice cackled with sadistic laughter.

Thankfully, Faykan was always there when this happened, comforting him when he was at his lowest. It almost seemed to Harry that Faykan had even less sleep than he did over the last weeks of the holidays, as whenever Harry woke from a nightmare Faykan was beside him immediately, holding him gently until he relaxed once more and then singing softly to return him to sleep, allowing Harry to dream of nothing but sea birds and white ships, sailing peacefully into a western sunrise.

It was a strange thing, as it was indeed calming, but Harry still felt an immense sadness held within the songs, as though something grand and good in the world had gone away forever. Blearily he could somewhat recall that Faykan never smiled when he sang these songs either, but he was always too tired to ask about them, and had great difficulty remembering all the details the next day.

Too soon for anyone, the holidays came to a close, and the spring term of Hogwarts was about to begin. Hermione came back the day before the holidays ended. She didn't seem interested in the strange mirror whatsoever, as she was too consumed with preparing for their classes to restart and was extremely disappointed at the four boys for not working to discover who Nicolas Flamel was.

They spent so much time in the library that first week back that they were almost ready to give up on the hope of the library giving up the information about him. Hermione was not willing to quit, and eagerly continued to drag the four boys there every spare minute they had.

Eventually, Harry was so tired of being in the library that he couldn't bare to look in another book for Nicolas. Taking out his last Chocolate Frog from Christmas to keep himself awake, he bit the head off the frog as it tried to jump away from him and absentminded turned the card over, silently grateful to read something other than a faded page from some book he'd likely never look at again.

Harry almost choked on the piece of chocolate as he read: _'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'_

"I've found him! I've found Flamel, he was on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card!" he said excitedly, clamming up only when the others shushed him for getting too loud. He showed the others the card, and Hermione jumped to her feet immediately and dug through her bag.

"I had never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly, almost slamming the book down on Faykan's fingers in her rush to removing it from her bag. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

" _This_ is light?" said Ron eyeing the very thick book, but Hermione told him to be quiet until she'd looked something up, and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself.

"I knew it! I knew it!" she whispered in victory, once she found what she was looking for.

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" said Ron grumpily, but Hermione ignored him. "Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically as she read aloud, "is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"

This didn't have quite the effect she'd expected.

"The what?" replied Harry, Ron and Draco bewilderedly in unison. Faykan got his now very trademark thoughtful look as Hermione began to explain about the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with the astonishing powers to transform any metal into pure gold, and produce the Elixir of Life, which would make the drinker immortal. She continued to read aloud that the only Stone currently in existence belonged to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, who had turned six hundred and sixty five that last year.

"See?" said Hermione finally after Ron and Harry looked up at her from the book. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Philosopher's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!" Faykan was nodding to himself as she spoke, clearly in agreement with her hypothesis.

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it." Draco started to argue again that it couldn't be Snape, but at that moment Madam Pince came by and threw them all out of the library for talking too loudly, which was completely unfair, but they couldn't argue with the Matron of the library if they ever wanted to come back and use it again.

Harry didn't have much time personally to think deeply regarding this newest discovery because, once the school year got fully underway, Quidditch practice started to eat up all of his free time once again. Wood was truly becoming fanatical, but according to Fred and George he always was like this toward the end of the season.

He was training the team as hard as Harry could remember, even through the endless rain that had begun with the spring season. He explained that his reasoning was that Snape had decided to referee the next match of Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff, and no one was particularly happy to hear this development, but at least they were driven to make sure that they could play their hardest before the Head of Slytherin could penalize them too harshly in the upcoming game.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus Snape was very concerned about Mr. Potter and his friends. Ever since the incident at the last Quidditch match, he had kept a much closer eye on the four Gryffindors, to the point that he was sure that they must have noticed his scrutiny. But Severus did not care, he would do whatever it took to keep Lily Potter's son safe from harm, however inconvenient or uncomfortable it was to the boy. This was the underlying purpose for Severus volunteering to referee the next Quidditch match.

The Potions Master had noticed, a few time in his classes, that at the same time as he was discreetly watching Potter, that both Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley seemed to be watching Severus' every move, as if he was going to blast them with his wand the moment they looked away. Taking a glance at Potter and Undol, Severus noted that while Harry was also watching him, the other black haired boy had a rather far away look that one acquires when either pondering deep matters, or more likely daydreaming…

Mr. Undol was the second reason that Severus felt the need to personally watch Potter. He had learned from Albus about the boy's nighttime encounter with the Mirror of Erised, and how they boy had seen through the Headmaster's disillusionment charm. What had rattled Dumbledore most of all though, was what Faykan had said that he saw in the mirror: _'White shores… and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise_. _'_

He recalled specifically that the boy's father had been rather attached so such a depiction, but whatever it meant still escaped him even after all these years. Albus had a suspicion of truely pure motives from the boy, but he hadn't yet let Severus in on what he was researching about this boy. So Severus watched and waited, he took extra time between classes to follow the boy, who stayed near Potter's side almost constantly, which consequently made it easier for Snape to keep track of both boys.

Prior to the start of the Quidditch match, Severus had commented to Albus that it might be safest is he was present at the match just in case someone tried to attack Potter again, even with Snape in the air with the boy, as he couldn't be sure if he could protect him completely. He had told the Headmaster about what had happened the last game, how he had saw the boy's broom start to go berserk, and had immediately starting muttering the counter jinx to try and save the boy.

Whoever was attacking the broom had almost won, when Severus felt a powerful force start to influence the broom, assisting him in trying to settle the bucking broomstick. It wasn't until his own cloak had been set aflame that he realized that the attacker's connection had broken, allowing Potter to safely finish the game.

Which was why he was here now, watching the game in the teacher's box while Severus flew as referee, despite loud and constant complaints from the student body, aside from his own Slytherins.

As Snape flew the length of the pitch, keeping one eye on Potter at all times, he barley managed to dodge a bludger that one of the Weasley twins and sent right at him. He fairly sent a penalty to Hufflepuff in retaliation, and was turning to see where Potter had gone, when he felt, more than saw, a blur of scarlet and sound rush past him, and whirling around, he watched as Potter pulled up from a dive with the snitch in hand.

Gryffindor had won the match. Severus landed breathing a sigh of relief at the terrific quick end of the game. In all fairness, Severus had to admit that the boy had a great deal of talent on a broom, although it would do little for the boy in the long term.

The attacker hadn't tried to do in the boy again either, as an added bonus. But just as he touched down, Severus looked up to see Quirrell moving away from the stadium, towards the Forbidden Forest. ' _Curious_ ' he thought, as normally the jittery Defense teacher wouldn't have left the castle at all except for Quidditch matches, which he seemed to have a fondness for. As the sun started to set, Severus pulled his hood over his head, and followed the strangely acting Professor into the forest. He had had a strong suspicion about the Professor ever since Halloween and it was time for some answers…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco Malfoy was studying in the library, readying himself for the end of the year exams, when his four Gryffindor friends entered, Hermione in the lead. He eagerly waved them over to his side table, and they all came over, Faykan sitting next to him with Harry on the other side. Ron and Hermione sat across the table from them.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away." Ron was complaining, as Hermione pulled out five color coded study schedules and handed them out to the four boys.

"Ten weeks," she snapped back at the red head, "that's not ages; it's like a second to Nicholas Flamel."

"But," Draco interjected, "we're not over six hundred years old are we?" Faykan let out a small cough masking a snigger that no one else seemed to notice as Ron pressed on arguing with Hermione. Draco wondered how the boy was going to pass his classes if he kept procrastinating, and promptly tuned them out as he returned to his Transfiguration book.

Harry had pulled out his Potions book, when he stopped and called out to Hagrid, who was just shuffling towards the exit, clearly hiding something out of sight. He questioned them all if they were still looking for Nicholas Flamel, looking worried, and Hermione verified that they had already figured out who he was 'ages ago'. Ron almost blurted out about the Philosopher's Stone before Hagrid shushed him, rather harshly if Draco had to be honest.

"Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?" Hagrid agreed, looking around guiltily.

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy…"

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid holding up a huge finger. "Listen, come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh"

"See you later, then," said Harry and Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully. Ron then dashed off to the section Hagrid had come out of and returned seconds later with a pile of dragon books.

"Hagrid told me first day of term that he always wanted a dragon," Faykan said, and he winced slightly as Ron kicked him under the table right when Madam Pince passed by.

Barely an hour later, the five students were quickly ushered inside Hagrid's rather close and heavily packed house, immediately noticing how swelteringly hot it was inside, as all the curtains were closed and a blazing fire was in the grate. Hagrid made tea and they all sat as comfortably as they could as Harry began his questioning about the Stone's defenses.

Hagrid told them he didn't know the other defenses other than his three headed dog, but he did accidentally let slip to them the teachers that had made them: Professors Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell, Snape, and Dumbledore himself had contributed in addition to 'Fluffy,' in defense of the Stone. Harry then explained that he had seen Snape follow Quirrell into the forest after the last Quidditch game and what he overheard them discussing. Even Draco thought that for Snape that seemed extremely suspicious, but at the same time it was hard to disbelieve the person that he knew far better than the Gryffindors did.

It was about this time that Ron finally noticed the dragon egg in Hagrid's fire, announcing it to the rest of the room. Draco had noticed a while ago, as he noted had also Faykan, but each of them had remained quiet about it, too focused on extracting information regarding the Stone from Hagrid to draw attention to it.

It was rather large, as well as completely black and nestled perfecting in the heart of the flames that was also heating the entire house to almost unbearable temperatures. Hagrid explained how he'd won it off a stranger in a game of cards. Draco found that slightly suspicious, but didn't get to ask further about it as Hagrid shepherded them out onto the grounds so he could continue tending his new future pet.

Even as they left however, Draco couldn't shake the very bad feeling he had about the consequences that were sure to happen from the giant man attempting to raise a fire-breathing dragon inside his _wooden_ house, next to an equally flammable forest.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Only a few weeks after they learned about Hagrid's dragon egg, Hedwig brought Harry a note from the man at breakfast. He had only written two words on it in a quick, untidy scrawl, reading simply: ' _It's hatching._ '

Hermione wouldn't permit the three Gryffindor boys from skiving any classes and rushing down to Hagrid's hut immediately however, and while Faykan went to inform Draco of the concerning development, Ron argued with her over the rarity that it would be to see a live dragon hatching. However, Harry's attention was drawn to Nott and his cronies, who were walking past the Gryffindor table, as the boy stopped dead in his tracks near to them as Ron said the word 'dragon'.

"Shut up!" Harry whispered, tugging at them both, hoping that Nott hadn't heard enough to make any sense of it before Ron and Hermione finally stopped talking.

Later, as they made their way out of the Great Hall, bound for the greenhouses for Herbology, Faykan finally caught back up with them, emphasizing with Harry at the futility of things while Ron continued to argue the point with Hermione. Harry decided to ignore them both, focusing on the song Faykan was half humming as they walked, it being rather similar to many that he half remembered over the Christmas holiday.

"Fay, what is that song about?" he finally worked up the courage to ask, making his friend pause in the melody and look at him with a somber expression.

Faykan was silent for a long moment, as though considering how he ought to reply, before speaking, "It is a song of passing, that old friends I once had taught to me before they left forever…"

"Oh…" Harry replied, suddenly guilty that he asked, but at the same time, the way Fay had answered didn't strike Harry as though the people he mentioned had died. The sadness that seemed expressed was different, less final he supposed, than meaning death.

"Where'd they go?" he found himself asking before he could stop himself.

Faykan paused just as they were entering the Greenhouse for Herbology, "Very far away, somewhere I cannot go," he said sadly, a small bitter smile on his face, and he gestured for Harry to enter while he held the door.

Herbology was one of the hardest lessons that day for Harry to pay attention, not only for what they knew they were going to go witness right after, but with how quiet and almost forlorn that Fay was throughout the lesson. With Ron and Hermione glaring at each other, it made the time drag on longer than Harry thought it ought to have.

After the lesson, Hermione finally conceded that they could go to Hagrid's during the morning break, and they departed the second the bell had rung, practically running the entire way to Hagrid's hut. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out." He said as he ushered them inside.

The egg was lying on the table with deep cracks slowly growing on all its sides. Something was clearly moving inside, struggling to escape, making odd clicking noises and the egg chipped and splintered. Draco came bursting in the door just in time to see the egg before with a loud scraping noise, it split open, revealing the baby dragon within.

Personally, Harry thought that it looked more like a crumpled black umbrella than a dragon, with its huge spiny wings dwarfing its skinny jet body. The dragon was sneezing slightly, shooting sparks out of its snout with every one, already shivering despite the heat of the room.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured as he reached a hand out to stroke the dragon's tiny head. It reacted by snapping at his fingers, showing off its pointed fangs.

As Hagrid continued to praise and coddle the baby dragon, Harry shot Hermione and Faykan a worried look. "Hagrid," Hermione said, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid turned to answer, but as he looked at Hermione the color drained from his face suddenly and he leapt to the feet and ran to the window directly behind her.

"What's the matter?" Ron said watching him with wide eyes.

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains…" Hagrid said hastily, struggling to get a good line of sight to wherever the person was, "It's a kid; he's runnin' back up ter the school."

Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking the person from his lanky form and the green-trimmed robes that flashed in the torchlight of the castle. Nott had seen the dragon.

The next week consisted of Harry, Ron, Faykan, Hermione and Draco pleading with Hagrid to let the dragon, which he had named Norbert, be taken somewhere where it could be raised properly. They had no luck until Faykan reminded them all about Ron's brother Charlie, Hagrid finally agreeing to send him a letter asking him to take Norbert to Romania. They received his answer the very next Wednesday via Hedwig:

It read: ' _Dear Ron,_

 _How are you? Thanks for the letter, I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon._

 _Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark._

 _Send me an answer as soon as possible._

 _Love,_

 _Charlie_ '

There was only one hitch in the plan; Ron had been bitten by Norbert earlier while helping Hagrid feed the now quite large baby dragon, and the wound had swelled overnight, sending Ron to the hospital wing with many unanswerable questions. What was worse, while Ron was trapped in the hospital wing, Nott had come in to taunt him and taken Ron's book wherein he had hidden the letter from Charlie, meaning that the Slytherin now knew exactly when and where they were going to deposit Norbert.

"Well, it's too late to change the plan now," Harry said when they learned this terrible news, "and besides, we have the invisibility cloak, Nott still doesn't know about that."

So it was decided. That saturday night, Harry, Hermione and Faykan walked down to Hagrid's hut under the invisibility cloak, and collected Norbert, whom Hagrid had wasted more time fussing over, giving him things to 'comfort' him on his long journey. Harry would have felt sorry for his large friend, if not for worry about getting caught while doing what they had to do next.

Luckily it was a very dark and cloudy night, so anyone looking out of the castle in their direction would have a hard time seeing them. After they retrieved Norbert, which was mercifully packed away in a crate, they made their way back for the castle, Faykan transforming into his animagus form to scout the route ahead for signs of teachers, Nott or Filch, while Harry and Hermione carried the crate up staircase after staircase to the astronomy tower, which was by far the tallest.

When they were about two thirds of the way there, Harry and Hermione saw Faykan stop, ears twitching as he listened ahead of them. They crept slowly forward and were delighted when they saw Professor McGonagall, in a tartan dressing gown and a hair net, pulling Nott by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you…"

"You don't understand, Professor. Faykan Undol's coming, he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on. I shall see Professor Snape about you, Nott!" McGonagall retorted sharply, not listening to a word that the boy was saying.

After that positively uplifting scene, the three Gryffindors finally reached the top of the astronomy tower and breathed a collective sigh of relief. They only waited about ten minutes, chatting happily about Nott's upcoming punishment until Charlie's friends arrived on broomstick to take Norbert away. Harry and Hermione shook hand with the others while Faykan just gave them all a nod of recognition. And at last Norbert the dragon disappeared over the clouds and out of their lives, hopefully for good.

All three slipped back down the spiral staircase, hearts light as their hands, until they came to the bottom of the stairs to find Professor McGonagall stride out of the darkness. They had been so happy about Norbert leaving that Harry and Hermione forgot to put the invisibility cloak back on and Faykan hadn't changed back into a fox.

"Good Evening," she said her mouth the thinnest line Harry had ever seen.

The three Gryffindors followed her in silence to her office, where she finally sat down and addressed them, "Nothing," she said sharply, "I repeat, nothing, gives a student the right to walk about the school at night." Harry could tell beneath her well controlled face she was bubbling with rage.

She continued telling them what she thought they were up to, feeding Nott with a lie to get him in trouble. She finally ruled their sentence. "All three of you will receive detention, and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

"Fifty?" Harry gasped; they had just lost the lead for the House cup, the lead he had won in Quidditch.

"Fifty, each," Professor McGonagall continued, breathing heavily through her long pointed nose.

"Professor, please" Hermione started.

"You can't…" Harry pleaded.

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter." McGonagall said, overruling the pair of them. "Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."

Harry was devastated, one hundred and fifty points lost in one night, putting Gryffindor in last place. How could they ever make up for this? He knew trying to reason with their Head of House would've done little, but he did take note that Fay had remained silent as punishment was decreed, but he hadn't the heart to blame his friend for his silence.

The next day went by painfully slow, the story having spread like wildfire over the course of the night: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost all those points, him and a pair of stupid first years.

Harry was suddenly the most hated student in Hogwarts. Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students had turned on him, everyone longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup for the first time in years, and all their collective hopes suddenly dashed. Everywhere Harry went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him. Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!"

Harry promised himself that he was done poking his nose in other people business, and he poured himself into studying for his exams and trying to put what had happened behind him. Even when he thought he heard Snape threatening Quirrell in an empty classroom, he refused to allow Hermione or Ron talk him into investigating more. Faykan had chosen to remain neutral in that argument, Harry noticed, but wasn't going to even attempt to pry the reason from his best friend.

The following morning, notes were delivered to Harry, Hermione and Faykan at the breakfast table. They were all the same message:

' _Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall._

 _Professor McGonagall_ '

Harry half expected that Hermione would complain about that this was a whole night of studying lost, but it seemed that she, like Harry, felt they deserved what they'd got. Faykan snorted at the irony of their detention would cause them to be out after hours when their crime was exactly that.

At the prearranged time the three Gryffindors said goodbye to Ron and went down to the entrance hall, to find Filch and Nott. Harry hadn't thought about Nott or his own punishment since they were caught the night before, but immediately remembered that he had also gotten a detention. Clearly it was going to be with them at theirs.

"Follow me," Filch said with a sneer, lighting a lamp and leading them outside.

As they walked out onto the ground Filch taunted them about breaking rules and about his beloved chains that he supposedly had once used to hang student up by various limbs in his office. Harry presumed that Filch was delighted by the severity of their punishment, and disliked being in close proximity to the rather cruel sounding man.

The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, Harry could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut. They soon heard a distant shout as they approached. "Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."

Harry's heart rose slightly; if they were going to be working with Hagrid it wouldn't be as bad. His relief must have showed in his face, because Filch said, "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy, it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece." He sneered at this, and Faykan put a hand on Harry should to reassure him of their safety.

Nott however, had stopped dead in his tracks. "The forest?" he repeated, sounding panicky, "We can go in there at night, there's all sorts of thing in there… like, werewolves."

"That's your problem, isn't it?" said Filch, his voice cracking with glee at the fear in Nott's face. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"

Hagrid showed up then, and after a few short words with Filch, who said he'd return in an hour for them to escort back to the castle, Hagrid sent the caretaker back up to the castle. After Filch had gone, Nott turned to Hagrid, starting to shake visibly in fear, outright refusing to go into the forest and complaining that his rich father would hear about this mistreatment.

Hagrid simply said that if Nott thought his father would rather want him expelled, he could go back to the castle and pack immediately. Nott finally backed down at that, still quaking in suppressed fear.

"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

Hagrid lead the four students to the very edge of the forest, and holding up his lamp, he pointed down a winding narrow track that disappeared into the thick black trees.

"Look there," Hagrid said pointing at a pool of silvery liquid. "That's unicorn blood. I found one dead last Wednesday, this ones been hurt bad by somthin'. We're gonna try and find the poor beast."

Hagrid continued to explain that they would be splitting up. Nott immediately demanded to go with Faykan and Fang, Hagrid mentioned that the big boarhound was a complete coward. Hagrid then set Harry to go with Faykan and Fang when Nott hesitated, while he would take Nott and Hermione. They were instructed to send up green sparks with their wands if they found the unicorn or red if they encountered trouble.

So Harry and Faykan set out with Fang into the heart of the forest. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest until they lost the path because the trees had become too thick to see it. Harry thought the blood splotches they were finding intermittently seemed to be getting thicker as they went. Suddenly, Faykan stopped and pointed out a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak tree.

"Look…" he whispered in Harry's ear, and then placed a finger to his own lips to indicate silence from then on. Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer.

It was the body of the unicorn, dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful or so horrifyingly sad. He stepped toward it, but stopped suddenly when a slithering sound came from the far side of the clearing. A bush on the far edge quivered, and out of the shadows came a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast.

Harry, Faykan and Fang stood transfixed, as the cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

"What is it," Harry whispered to Faykan, trying to be a quiet as possible, but even that was too much. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Harry, while unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Harry, and he couldn't move for fear.

Then a pain like he'd never felt before pierced his head; it was as though his scar were on fire. Half blinded, he staggered backward. Barley, he could see Faykan standing between him and the cloaked figure, wand in his hand, and his whole body shone with light, " _Auta me'urra amin naia_ ," he bellowed, lowering his wand to point at the advancing figure.

Bright blue white lightning blasted from the tip of his wand, and arced over the air toward the figure, who conjured a shield of darkness that absorbed the burst of electricity. The figure was clearly not desirous to put up much of a fight, as it then turned and fled, rising into the sky and vanishing past the tops of the trees.

"Harry, are you alright," Faykan said as he offered his hand to Harry to help him up. Shaking his head, struggling to dispel the dizziness and pain, Harry eventually stood, touching his throbbing scar gingerly with his free hand, "Yes, thanks Fay. What was that?"

Faykan shook his head, but another voice answered, "It was a horrid creature…"

They whipped around, revealing a man striding out of the undergrowth. As he entered the clearing Harry saw that it wasn't a man, but a centaur, the shimmering horse body gleaming in the wand light.

"Who are you," Faykan demanded, not lowering his wand.

"I am Firenze, young _Ithron_ …" the centaur said, his tail swishing in the slight breeze of the forest. Only then did Faykan lower his wand, something flashing in his eyes that Harry couldn't explain.

"Who would do this?" Faykan asked, taking a small step toward the centaur, keeping himself between Harry and the creature still while gesturing at the dead unicorn. Harry relaxed a small amount as well, Faykan wouldn't be remotely friendly if he felt they were still in danger.

"Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a terrible crime." Firenze explained, "The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a most terrible price. You would have slain something pure to save yourself, and you will have a cursed life from the very moment the blood touches your lips." Unfortunately, this only spawned more questions for Harry.

"Who would choose such a life?" he blurted out

"Perhaps someone who only needs to stay alive long enough to drink something that would restore him to full power, something that would mean he could never die." Faykan mused aloud.

"The Philosopher's Stone," Harry said, quiet realization dawning on him, "of course the Elixir of Life! But, who..."

"Can't you think of anyone Harry, anyone at all who could have been waiting so many years to return to power, clinging to life and awaiting their chance?" Faykan questioned, looking directly into Harry's eyes, his own sparkling like azure crystals.

Realization finally dawned on Harry, "You mean that thing that killed the unicorn, which was drinking its blood. That was Voldemort?"

"I can think of no other," Faykan said flatly, then raised his wand and shot emerald green sparks into the air.

They waited in silence for several minutes, each lost in their own thoughts, until Hagrid arrived with Hermione and Nott.

"Harry! Fay! Are you both alright?" Hermione cried, running to them.

"We're fine Hermione." Faykan said, while Harry stood slightly dazed from the experience moments ago. "The unicorn is dead Hagrid; it's in that clearing back there."

Firenze spoke briefly with Hagrid, who wasn't able to get any more information out of him then Faykan was, before they all departed swiftly from the forest, Hagrid having deemed that it was no longer safe for them, especially Harry, to remain.

Ron was asleep in an armchair when the other three Gryffindor first years arrived back in the common room. Hermione shook him awake, and Harry and Faykan told them both about what they had witnessed and worked out in the forest. Harry refused to sit, but paced in front of the fire while Faykan stared out a window into the midnight darkness.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..." Harry said at last, thinking they were all so stupid to be so short-sighted

Ron moaned when Harry said Voldemort's name, but he didn't care what his friend thought. Hermione brought up the fact that as long as Dumbledore was around, Harry was sure to be safe, as the Headmaster was the only wizard that You-Know-Who ever feared.

"Voldemort must be getting desperate if even Hagrid is noticing the unicorns getting attack. Soon Voldemort might even come for the stone whether the _esteemed_ Headmaster is here or not." Faykan scoffed. Harry could hear a heavy tint of sarcasm in Faykan's voice as he mentioned Professor Dumbledore, and wondered what the man they had never met before had done to earn his best friend's ire.

"Stop saying his name." Ron moaned again loudly and Faykan turned to him, his face suddenly stern, walked over and leaning in until he was face to face with the red head. "VOLDEMORT!" he cried, causing Ron to pale in fright and fall out of his chair.

Faykan glared down at him. "Stop telling people to be afraid of him; I will say his name, for it is just a name. He is just a man, nothing more…" Ron whimpered slightly, but remained silent from then on.

Harry finally posed that they really needed to get to bed, and they all went up to their respective dormitories. Harry was so exhausted he dropped right to sleep the minute his head hit the pillow.

 _auta me'urra amin naia : come lightning I command_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You are continuing to be warned!**

 _So, nothing too terribly overt as changes in this chapter, mainly just additional information that painted a clearer picture to what I had initially designed. more detail on just what it was that Harry pictured from the verses that Faykan sang to aid him overcome the longing of the mirror. Once more skipped the Quidditch match, as first year ones were more or less unimportant to the story, and therefore easily could come out as they did in canon._

 _OMG HARRY STARTS ASKING FAYKAN QUESTIONS ABOUT THINGS! I had wanted to put much of this sort of thing in from the start, but it just hadn't happened, and was a great deal part of why I wanted to redo the series so badly, as I fear that Faykan came off as far too mysterious, or at least more so than I intended. It was poorly supported by his friends basically accepting everything odd and different about him as just part of Faykan, which while that eventually would happen in such a friendship, would certainly not be the case all the time, and delving into more clues about faykan and where he might come from I felt was terribly important for the series in the long run regarding where it goes in the future._

 _standard Norbert scenario, as getting them out into the forest to encountered Quirrel-mort was fundamental in the characters understanding the depth of the stakes they were at, and motivating Harry through going for the stone in the end. all in all a rather transitional filler chapter I think, building up for the final one of Year 1 that is to come. My, my, I need to get back to work editing these... with all the preparations for moving to college I had let this slide, and am still only at the beginning of Y2... So much work and so little sleep..._

 _Still, we go on..._

 _For those diehard fans who've read the series original, please tell me what scenes from the series (anywhere from any book on ANP) do you hope to revisit with new updates and changes. such an answer within a review (preferably) or PM (if you widh) would greatly help motivate me to push on in the editing, although I will not be writing at all the next 3 days (Wed, Thurs, Fri) due to the moving across states..._

 _~F_


	11. Y1-C10: Beyond Fluffy

_So, in the midst of a lot of things, I completely forgot about posting this on Thursday, my bad... but life has started getting busy with college work and so forth. I do need to get back into editing the chapters for this however, or it might get delayed in the near future... but anyway, here it is, enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Ten**

 **Beyond Fluffy**

Harry never figured out quite how he made it through his exams that year, especially when he was more than half expecting Snape or Voldemort to come bursting through the door to kill him at any moment. The days slowly crept by, and only Faykan's continual confirmation that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door on the third floor kept Harry's sanity intact.

It was incredibly hot in the large lecture room that the first years had their written exams in, where they had to write with special Anti-Cheating quills. Their practical exams were just as difficult: Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his classroom to see is they could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk, while McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox. Snape made them slightly nervous, watching closely as they remembered how to make a forgetfulness potion; Faykan had laughed aloud at the irony of it afterward, although Harry and Ron were less than pleased about being in Snape's dungeon for any amount of time.

Harry did the best that he could, while trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead at the same time, which were bothering him more and more ever since the confrontation with Voldemort in the forest.

Faykan, Ron and Hermione were really worried about him over the course of the exam period, as he started to become jittery and unable to sit still for long periods of time, but the rest of the Gryffindor first years seemed to want to believe it was just exam nerves and nothing more.

Harry could barley sleep, only drifting off if Faykan sang or played the flute that Harry had gotten for Christmas for him, clearly weaving some sort of spell into the melody that cause everyone in the dormitory to become exceptionally drowsy. At first the other boys were a bit put off by the unusualness of it, but even they had noticed that Harry was having a rough time and stopped mentioning it.

Even with the added help however, Harry was still woken by his old nightmare quite often; except now they were even worse because the hooded figure from the forest made appearances, dripping silvery blood as he advanced on Harry.

Strangely enough, only Faykan seemed as worried about the Stone's protection as Harry, probably because of what they had witnessed together in the forest. Ron and Hermione were certainly scared of the idea of Voldemort coming back, but they were far too busy with their studies to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to. It was almost bizarre how they seemed to think that it was only a possibility that an attack on the stone's location could happen, rather than an inevitability.

Their very last exam was History of Magic, which irritated Faykan to no end. After they were finished with the one hour of what seemed to be pure torment; answering questions about batty old wizards and witches that had invented self stirring cauldrons or other nonsense that hardly applied to them now, they would at last be free for one full week before their results came back and the term came to a close. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Harry couldn't help cheering with the rest of his class.

Hermione was already going over the exam questions as they wandered out of the castle and down toward the lake, like she had done after every written exam they had had. As the four of them sprawled around a shady tree, they saw the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan tickling the tentacles of a giant squid that was basking in the shallows.

"No more studying," Ron sighed contentedly, stretching out on the grass. Faykan was watching Harry, who was still rubbing his forehead in suppressed pain.

"Your scar is still hurting, isn't it?" he asked, concerned, and Harry nodded.

"I wish I knew what it means!" Harry burst out angrily. "It's never happened as often as this."

Hermione suggested that Harry visit Madam Pomfrey, but Harry knew that she couldn't help. His scar felt like… like it was warning him of coming danger or something. Ron just told him to relax, as the Stone was safe as long as Dumbledore was around, and Snape couldn't know how to get past Fluffy anyway. Something in Ron's words seemed to click together in Faykan's mind at the mention of Fluffy, and Harry noticed his best friend's worried, faraway look.

"I just thought of something," Faykan said finally, standing shakily as his voice presented a new bout of worry, "don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wanted more than anything is a dragon, and someone showed up that just happens to have one? I mean, who wanders around with dragon eggs in their pocket," he said slowly, suddenly paling as he came to some sort of realization and started sprinting toward Hagrid's hut, "Why didn't I see it before!" he cried as he ran, and Harry tore after him, starting to see the same problem. Just who _had_ given Hagrid the Dragon egg?

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco had just exited the castle to enjoy a little pre-summer sunshine after the end of his final exam when he spotted Faykan sprinting across the grounds, followed closely by Harry, with Hermione and Ron running to try and catch up to the two boys, all heading in the direction of Hagrid's hut. Sudden fear gripped him, as though something might be terribly wrong, and Draco chased after them, arriving out of breath just as Hagrid had opened the door for the four Gryffindors.

"Hullo," the massive man said, smiling at them all. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"

Draco was about to accept the invitation, as he was very parched from all the work he had put into his exams, followed by the impromptu dash across the grounds, when Faykan cut him off, "No," he said quickly, "we're in a hurry Hagrid, but I've got something important to ask you about. You know the night you won Norbert's egg? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

"Dunno," Hagrid replied casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak off." He took a look at their stunned faces and raised his eyebrows, explaining that there were lots of strange folk that came to the Hog's Head pub out in the village beyond the school's gates, and that he never saw the stranger's face, because the person had kept his hood up the entire time.

Faykan pressed onward still however, seeming to search for anything that might be unusual or suspicious about the mystery person, "What did you talk to him about?" he asked."Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

"Mighta come up," said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here... He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after... so I told him... an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon... an' then... I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks..." Faykan seemed to grow more concerned, but didn't interrupt Hagrid, "Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted... but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home... So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy..."

Faykan asked immediately how interested the stranger seemed when Hagrid mentioned Fluffy, suddenly going very stiff in suppressed fright.

"Well, yeah, how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep…" Hagrid said, before widening his eyes in horror at what he had just told them.

He started to tell them to forget anything he'd just said, but even Draco realized what this information meant, and the five of them were already sprinting back to the castle as fast as their legs could carry them. None of the students spoke until they were back inside the castle, which was rather vacant when compared to the warm, sunlit grounds. They flew up to Professor McGonagall's office, as none of them knew where the Professor Dumbledore's office was located, and skidded to a halt in front of her desk. Professor McGonagall looked up at them, and frowned at their panicked looks

"We need to see Professor Dumbledore, immediately!" Harry said, rather breathless from all the running.

"Well I'm sorry; Professor Dumbledore received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and left straight for London." Professor McGonagall said, almost sounding as though she didn't believe that there was anything they had to say urgent enough to concern the Headmaster.

"He's gone now? Argh, but this is important!" Faykan said frantically, "It's about the Philosopher's Stone."

Whatever Professor McGonagall was expecting, that wasn't it. The book she was holding fell to her desk with a loud thump.

"Sna… Someone's going to try and steal it." Harry continued further baffling the Transfiguration teacher.

"I don't know how you all found out about the stone," Professor McGonagall sai briskly, still very flustered, "but rest assured it is perfectly safe." She picked the book back up from where it had fallen onto her desk, and rose from her seat to gesture at the door, "Now, I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine." With that she promptly dismissed than and returned to her book.

As they walked along the corridors, Harry finally spoke up again "It's tonight; Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and he's gotten Dumbledore out of the way. He must have sent that note, and I bet the Ministry will get a real shock when Dumbledore shows up out of the blue.

"But what can just the five of us…" Draco began but stopped and the all turned when Hermione gasped. Professor Snape was standing right behind them.

"Good afternoon," he said smoothly. They all just stared at him.

"You five really shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said with a twisted smile. Turning to look directly at Harry and Faykan he continued, "People might think your… up to something."

He then abruptly strode off in the opposite direction after making another snipe about how Gryffindor really couldn't afford to lose any more points anyway, which they all ignored.

"Well, that's it isn't it?" Harry said as they turned to go outside.

Draco stared at him, as did Ron and Hermione. Faykan kept an eye out for other teachers. Harry was very pale, but his eyes glittered with determination.

"I'm going down the trapdoor, tonight." He said flatly "I'm going to try and get to the Stone before Snape.

"You're mad!" said Ron.

"You can't!" said Hermione. "After what both McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"

Draco thought Harry was going to explode, when he shouted: "SO WHAT Don't you understand? If Snape gets the Stone, Voldemort's coming back…" Harry seemed to trail off and Faykan picked up the line of thought for him, almost seemlessly.

"Losing points doesn't matter anymore, Voldemort needs to be stopped at all costs. Harry and I are going down the trapdoor tonight and you three can either join us or not, because nothing any of you say will change our minds."

Harry found his voice again and added, "Voldemort killed my parents, remember? I'm never going over to the Dark Side, so he will have to kill me too."

Draco spoke up before either of the other two, "Your right Harry,"

"I'll use the invisibility cloak," said Harry.

"But will it cover all four of us?" Ron asked

"All four of us?"

"Oh come off it, you don't think were going to let you and Fay handle this on you own do you?" Draco added, nodding in agreement to their mad scheme that was already in the works.

"Of course not," said Hermione briskly. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd better go and look through my books; there might be something useful..."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

So, after dinner that very evening, true to their word Harry, Ron and Hermione waited in the common room for the rest of their housemates to slowly drift away up to bed. Faykan had detoured back in the corridors of the castle to double back and get Draco so they didn't have to go all the way to the dungeons and lose precious time in locating him.

When the last person finally went up to bed, Harry pulled out the invisibility cloak and the three of them crept toward the portrait hole.

"What are you doing?" said a voice suddenly from the corner of the room. Neville Longbottom appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," said Harry, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back, still trying to still his now pounding heart at how blind they had ot have been to overlook the rather pudgy boy there in the corner.

But it was no use, as Neville stared at their guilty faces, reading their intent without needing words. "You're going out again," he declared, somehow getting angry at the thought.

"No, no, no," said Hermione, attempting to reassure the other boy. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville, you must be tired?"

"You can't go out," said Neville, determined, "you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."

"You don't understand," said Harry, imploringly "this is important."

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate and unfortunately very foolish. "I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole and throwing his arms wide to block the passage. "I'll fight you!"

Harry felt his heart tearing a bit at the fact that they'd have to push their way past the one person that had always gone out of his way to be kind to him, even through the mess with the hundred and fifty point loss. After several moments of tense silence, Hermione finally stepped forward and raised her wand, "Neville I'm really, really sorry about this. _Petrificus Totalus_!"

Neville's arms and legs snapped together and he toppled to the floor. The three Gryffindors hurried past him, muttering their apologies as they passed. They threw the cloak about them the moment they were outside of Gryffindor Tower, passing swiftly down towards the third floor, and intercepting Draco where they had prepared to meet him in a small dark crevasse behind a statue just inside the third corridor, and ran into Faykan the fox outside the door to Fluffy's room.

The door was ajar as they approached, Faykan changing back into human form as he smelled them, and Harry pulled the cloak off them. Turning to Draco, Ron and Hermione, Harry spoke quickly, "If you want to go back now, I won't blame you. You can take the cloak; we won't need it from here on."

They all complained vehemently at that, and together the five friends pushed the door open fully. Faykan took the flute from Harry as he walked inside ahead of them all, immediately playing the melody of the same song that he had used all year long to help Harry fall asleep. As Harry pushed past the doorway with Ron, Hermione and Draco to catch up, they saw Fluffy fast asleep with one giant paw on top of the trapdoor.

Motioning for Faykan to keep playing, Draco, Ron and Harry strained and grunted as they slowly moved Fluffy's paw out of the way and pulled open the trapdoor, revealing the steep drop into darkness below

"What can you see?" Hermione asked anxiously from where she stood by Faykan, who continued to play.

"Nothing, just black, not even a means to climb down, we'll have to drop," Harry replied, "I'll go first," he added. There was a flash of movement, and he looked at Faykan, who was still playing, and was given him an assuring nod, as Faykan pointed with one hand at Fluffy, indicating that he would keep the dog asleep until they were all through then follow behind them.

Harry nodded in reply, and quickly lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by only his fingertips. Then he looked up at Ron and Draco, and said, "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"

"Right," replied Ron, while Draco just looked pale and slightly frightened, but resolute in his commitment to stick with them.

With that, Harry let go. Cold damp air rushed past him as he fell, and after only a few moments he landed with a funnily muffled thump. It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of plant.

"It's okay;" he called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor, "it's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Ron followed right away. He landed, sprawled out next to Harry.

"What's this stuff?" he asked immediately as he felt around at the plant that was cushioning them.

"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall." Harry replied, shrugging in the darkness, "Come on, you lot!"

Draco and Hermione had already jumped however. Hermione landed on Harry's other side while Draco landed next to Ron.

"We must be miles under the school," Hermione said in wonder.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," said Ron.

The distant music stopped. There was a few moments of silence, broken by loud barking from Fluffy, but moments later, Faykan had landed next to Hermione, who shrieked, "Lucky! Look at you both!"

Both Hermione and Faykan leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall at her pronouncement. They had to struggle because the moments they had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around their ankles. Draco, Harry and Ron had their legs already tightly bound in long creepers without even noticing it happening.

Hermione and Faykan managed to free themselves before the plant got any firm grips on them, and they watched in horror as the three boys fought to pull the plant off themselves, but the more they strained, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is, it's Devil's Snare!"

She starting to say a rhyme that she had learned in Herbology, but Faykan sprang into action as soon as she said the plant's name. Whipping out his wand, he slashed it in front of him and bellowed " _kalina en' i' anar naara haba goth_!"

Brilliant white light erupted from his wand and set the tendrils of the Devil's Snare alight with clear red flames, causing it to release the three boys as it fled from the fire threatening to engulf it.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," praised Harry as he joined her by the wall, still wiping sweat off his face.

"Yeah," Draco added, "and lucky Fay doesn't lose his head in a crisis, you really need to teach us some of those spells by the way." Faykan pinked slightly at the praise.

"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward. After several minutes of following the downward sloping passages, Ron stopped in his tracks, listening hard.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered, when they all stopped to look at him. Harry listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"It sounds like wings," he said

"There's light ahead, I can see something moving." Draco said, pointing out what looked like an open doorway ahead of them.

Once they reached the end of the passageway, they could see much easier in renewed torchlight, brightly illuminating a brilliantly lit chamber before them, its ceiling arching high above. It was full of small, bright bird-like creatures, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door, while in the center of the room were several brooms. Harry watched the birds for several seconds and they soared glittering overhead.

"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly, recognizing the shapes. "They're keys! Winged keys, I bet one of them fits that door."

Harry, Ron, Draco and Faykan all instinctively took brooms and sped off, snatching at keys, while Hermione studied the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one, probably silver, like the handle." She called up to the boys.

"That one!" Harry called to the others, pointing. "That big one with bright blue wings; the feathers are all crumpled on one side."

The four boys immediately formulated a strategy, coming in at the key from separate directions, pinning it between them all and the wall. Harry dived and with a nasty crunching noise, slammed the body of the key against the wall with one hand, capturing it. They landed quickly and Harry rammed the still struggling key into the lock and turned it. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught again.

The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as soon as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like granite. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces.

"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Draco said, "We've got to play our way across the room."

Behind the white pieces they could see another door.

"How?" asked Hermione nervously.

"I think," guessed Ron, "we're going to have to be chessmen."

Both Ron and Draco started working together, placing Harry as the king, which he didn't like in the slightest, while Faykan and Draco took the place of the two bishops, Hermione as the king's castle, and Ron becoming the queen side knight. When they took their places, a white pawn moved slowly forward two squares, starting the game. Ron and Draco would conjointly plan out their moves, and then Ron would shout out the commands to their pieces. It was a frightful battle, pieces being lost on obth sides, but both boys working like madmen to prevent any of the pieces that were their friends from being taken at all costs. After what seemed like hours, there were barely any pieces on the white side left.

"We're nearly there," Ron muttered suddenly. "Just let me think let me think..."

The white queen turned her blank face toward him, as though knowing what he was thinking about doing. "Yes..." said Ron softly, "It's the only way... I've got to be taken." He declared suddenly.

"NO!" Harry and Hermione shouted in unison.

"That's chess!" snapped Draco. "You've got to make some sacrifices! If he takes one step forward, the queen will take him, which leaves you free to checkmate the king, Faykan!"

"But," Harry started, but Ron cut him off, "Do you want to stop Snape from getting that Stone or not?" he demanded hotly, silencing all protests, as before anyone could argue further, Ron stepped forward into his new position, checking the king, and the white queen pounced.

The statue struck him hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor. Hermione screamed and almost moved off her square, only remaining where she was when Draco commanded her to stay put, as they were still playing. Faykan then moved three squares to the left, casting a spell that shattered the pawn in his way.

"Checkmate!" Fay declared, and the white king removed his crown and threw it down at his feet. Draco dashed to Ron, letting them all know that the other boy was alright, just unconscious, and Faykan transfigured the white king's stone crown to a metal one made of what seemed to be gold, and placed it on Ron's head, smiling appreciatively at the boy's noble sacrifice.

"Take care of Ron, then use the brooms in the previous room to get to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore," Harry told Draco, who nodded, "We'll go onward," With one last look back at unconscious form of Ron, Harry, Hermione and Faykan all charged through the door and up the next passageway.

"All right?" Harry whispered, as they reached the next door.

"Go on," Fay encouraged him, and Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell immediately filled their nostrils, making them all pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one Faykan had turned to stone on Halloween, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Faykan whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."

Fay pulled open the next door, them all hardly daring to look at what came next, but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Faykan studied the bottles while Harry looked over Hermione's shoulder to read it:

' _Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

 _Two of us will help you, which ever you would find,_

 _One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

 _Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

 _Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

 _Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line._

 _Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,_

 _To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

 _First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

 _You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

 _Second, different are those who stand at either end,_

 _But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;_

 _Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

 _Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

 _Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

 _Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._ '

Hermione let out a sigh and Harry saw that she was smiling, the very thing he felt like doing. She explained that it was a logic puzzle and studied the paper several times over. Finally she clapped her hands.

"Got it," she said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire, toward the stone."

"Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" Faykan asked.

Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

"You drink that," said Harry, interrupting her as she started to protest, "No, listen… get back and help Draco with Ron. Grab brooms from the flying key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, as we need him. We might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."

"But Harry, what if You-Know-Who's with him?" she said, her voice growing very small and frightened.

"That's why I'll be with Harry," Faykan said, his blue eyes glowing in the black fire's reflection.

"Please be careful, both of you," Hermione said finally, as she took a long drink from the round bottle and took off through the purple fire.

Turning to Faykan, Harry steeled his nerve and picked up the small bottle, "only enough for one swallow each," he said. Faykan just nodded, "Okay, here we come," he took one small mouthful and passed the bottle to Faykan, who drained it. It felt as though ice was flooding his body. Faykan put the bottle down and they stood, side by side before the black flames. "Ready Harry?" Faykan asked.

"Ready," he replied.

They jumped through the flames together. There was someone already in the next room, but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.

It was Quirrell.

"You!" gasped Harry; he shot a look to Faykan, who was already gone. Turning back to Quirrell, he saw the small fox circling the room stealthily through the shadows cast by the torches.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter."

Harry saw Faykan stealing toward the Mirror of Erised, while Quirrell's back was to him and the mirror, so Harry decided to stall Quirrell from turning back to the mirror as long as he was unaware of Fay.

"But I thought it was Snape." He said, feigning surprise and shock.

"Severus?" Quirrell said, and then laughed, and Harry noticed that it wasn't his usual laugh, but cold and much sharper. "Yes Severus does seem the type doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat like he does. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?" the man said mockingly.

Harry had come to that conclusion earlier, all of Draco and Faykan's thoughts about it not being Snape were finally clicking into place while staring at the man, but as Faykan was only halfway to the mirror, Harry continued to play like he was in disbelief.

"But Snape tried to kill me!" he said quickly, trying to think of something that would keep the man talking.

"No, no, no." Quirrell chided, "I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss. Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Severus at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape or you little friend hadn't been muttering counter curses, trying to save you."

Faykan was between Quirrell and the mirror, and was transforming silently back into human form, just as Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry, but still the man didn't turn around yet.

"You and your little friends are too nosy to live, Potter." Quirrell said scathingly, taking a small step toward him, away from Fay and the mirror. "Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew one of you had seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."

"Ah so that's why you let the troll was inside the castle, I was wondering why you stank of it." Faykan said loudly, announcing his presence directly behind Quirrell. As the surprised Professor turned Faykan shot a blinding flash of light at him, knocking the man sideways, away from both Harry and the Mirror. Harry noticed that his bonds loosened dramatically as Quirrell lost his concentration over the spell, allowing him to slip free.

While Faykan dueled with Quirrell, each sending bolts and flashes at each other as they battled across the room, Harry moved to the mirror quickly, his mind racing. What he wanted more then anything right now, was to get the stone before Quirrell. Quirrell sent a blinding blue bolt at Faykan, who sidestepped it and returned to his offensive, pushing Quirrell back further away from Harry, who had to duck as Quirrell's spell reflected off the glossy surface of the Mirror.

Harry quickly stepped directly in front of the mirror. He saw his reflection, pale and scared looking at first with spells and curses flying behind him. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood red stone. Then the mirror version of Harry winked at him and put the Stone back in its pocket, and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow, incredibly, he'd gotten the Stone.

Quirrell was screaming curses at Faykan, when finally a high cold voice sounded from his same direction, but Quirrell hadn't spoken them " _Fool, get Potter, he has the stone!_ " Blasting a final curse at Faykan, Quirrell turned and flew through the air toward Harry, but Faykan cried " _neuma goth_!" and Quirrell was entangled in a magical net that prevented him from moving, before he was slammed back into the far wall, well away from Harry while Faykan stood between them.

"Master, the boy is too strong, help me, Master!" Quirrell cried out in desperation.

The cold voice spoke again, and it seemed to chill Harry to the bone, " _Let me speak to them, face to face._ "

"Master you are not strong enough!" Quirrell said hesitantly, but the voice replied harshly, and the man twitched as though it caused him pain. " _I have strength enough for this…_ "

Faykan backed away from Quirrell until he was at Harry's side, wand still pointed at the professor, but Harry couldn't muster the will to move his legs or draw his own wand as Quirrell slowly lifted his hands within the net and removed his turban, revealing a horrific sight. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was another face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

" _Harry Potter..._ " it whispered at him.

Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move.

"Voldemort," Faykan hissed, stepping forward and holding his wand up.

" _Yes, see what I have become?_ " the face said. " _Mere shadow and vapor… I have form only when I share another's body… Unicorn blood can sustain me, but it cannot give me a body on my own… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will finally return to power… Now… why don't you give me that stone in your pocket Harry?_ " the face said, hissing as it spoke barely above a whisper, but it was enough to carry across the room. So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs. He stumbled backward.

" _Don't be a fool,_ " snarled the face, as it stared intently at Harry. " _Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents... They died begging me for mercy..._ "

"YOU LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.

" _How touching..._ " it hissed. " _I always value bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain._ "

"NEVER!" Harry screamed in sudden rage. He'd rather destroy the stone than let this monster have it.

" _KILL THEM!_ " Voldemort bellowed just as the net around Quirrell was torn into pieces from a sudden spike of magical power, and Quirrell fired a spell at Faykan, blasting him backward, right through the black fire into the potion room. The Professor then leaped at Harry, knocking him off his feet and landing heavily on top of him, both hands around Harry's throat. Harry's scar was almost blinding him with pain at the contact, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony as well.

"Master, I cannot hold him. My hands! My hands!" the man whined pitifully. And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms, Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.

" _Then kill him, fool, and be done!_ " screeched Voldemort.

Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by pure instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face with both hands. With an agonizing scream, Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering now too, and then Harry knew what the cause was; Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain. His only chance was to keep a hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse or going for the stone. Faykan was gone, maybe hurt or worse, and he was all there was left to stop Voldemort from getting the Stone.

Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could, digging his fingers in as hard as he dared. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off, while the pain in Harry's head was building. He suddenly couldn't see, only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, " _KILL HIM! KILL HIM!_ " and other voices, maybe some only in his own head, crying his name as Harry's vision drifted into blackness and he knew no more.

 _kalina en' i' anar naara haba goth : light of the sun burn mine enemies_

 _neuma goth : trap my foe_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned!**

 _So, once again, apologies for forgetting when I was posting, I had all day Thursday off and wasn't thinking about things relative to what week it was. my schedule is still adjusting to being at college rather than at home. but still, better late than never right?_

 _without further interruption then... Surprisingly, there wasn't much I felt this chapter needed to be changed, aside from minor things tightening up the flow here and there, primarily in the beginning. I was rather pleased with the outcome of the trip down the trapdoor, and didn't feel any real need was present to alter it. but there will indeed be big changes to discuss in the next chapter, the epilogue of book one, before we press onward to book 2's storyline._

 _Until then! ~F_


	12. Y1-Epilogue: Changed Forever

_So we've reached the end of the first year of Hogwarts. The subsequent years/chapters will be added on after this, rather than as separate stories as people have requested, so don't worry about this one ending. Many thanks to those who continue to review, the words of encouragement have been most helpful in keeping me busy with editing these chapters and moving along on my other projects as well._

 **Epilogue**

 **Changed Forever**

Harry woke up to see lights sparkling above him. It looked curiously like the Snitch. He blinked, and saw that it wasn't the Snitch at all. He blinked again, and the smiling face of Albus Dumbledore blearily swam into view above him, even as the kindly Headmaster settled Harry's glasses upon his nose for him.

"Good afternoon, Harry," Dumbledore said politely. Harry immediately began telling Dumbledore everything, about Quirrell, the Stone, the fight down in front of the mirror, when Dumbledore interrupted him.

"Calm yourself, dear boy, you are a little behind the times," said Dumbledore. "Quirrell does not have the Stone."

Harry began to speak again, now to ask questions of what he had missed, but the Headmaster held up his hand to stop him. "Harry, please relax, or Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out." Professor Dumbledore said, a small smile on his face.

Harry swallowed and looked around him. He realized he must be in the Hospital Wing. He was lying in a bed with clean white linen sheets, and next to him was a small table piled high with what looked like half a candy shop. In a bed nearby was Faykan, still unconscious and badly burned from head to foot. Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey were tending to his burns and setting other injuries. Harry desperately wanted to know if the boy was all right, but the Headmaster chose that moment to begin speaking.

"What happened down in the dungeons between you, Mr. Undol and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows." Professor Dumbledore said, smiling again at the end.

"How long have I been in here?" Harry asked.

"Three days." The Headmaster answered quickly, "Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy will be most relieved you have come round, they have been extremely worried about both you and young Mr. Undol." Harry took another look at Faykan's motionless form. He looked terrible, his entire body dark red and even blackened in some places from the burns. His wand lay on the bedside table with charred marks etched permanently into the wood.

"But sir, the Stone?" Harry asked, turning back to Dumbledore.

"I see you are not to be distracted," the aged wizard sighed, "very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. I arrived in time to prevent that, although you were doing very well on your own, I must say."

Dumbledore continued to explain that he had feared for Harry's safety as the effort involved in him holding on to Quirrell quite nearly killed him. He then assured Harry that the Stone was going to be destroyed, but warned Harry that there were still other means for Voldemort to return to the physical world.

Harry nodded, but stopped quickly, because the action made his head hurt. Then he asked, "Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell me... things I want to know the truth about..."

"The truth," Dumbledore said, with muted surprise, "is both a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie to you."

"Well..." Harry started, suddenly very self conscious about what he was asking, "Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?"

Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time. "Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today, not now at least. You will know, one day... but put it from your mind for now, Harry. When you are older... I know you hate to hear this... when you are ready, you will know, I promise you."

And Harry just knew it would be no good to argue. "But why couldn't Quirrell touch me?" he settled on asking, to change the subject.

Dumbledore explained to him about how his mother's sacrifice to save him created a kind of shield that prevented Voldemort from being able to bare to touch him, Quirrell, being possessed by Voldemort, therefore couldn't touch Harry either. Harry then asked how he got the Stone out of the mirror. At that, Dumbledore smiled, explaining that as one of his own more brilliant ideas, only someone who wanted to find but not use the Stone could have gotten it out of the mirror.

Dumbledore finally bid Harry good day, and went to talk with Professor Snape while Madam Pomfrey came to check on him, and he managed to wheedled his way into hero allowing in Ron, (still wearing his golden crown from the chess match,) Hermione, and Draco in for five minutes to talk to Harry. They all sent sad looks over at Faykan's unconscious form, covered in burn salves and other potions. Ron and Draco both grilled Harry for everything that happened after the chess room. He told them everything, from the potion room with Hermione, and the battle that Faykan had with Quirrell in the mirror chamber. It was one of those moments where the truth was far more exciting than the wild rumors.

They all had questions left unanswered, mainly spiraling off how Faykan could possibly outduel a fully grown wizard, but with the boy unconscious they had no way to ask him about it at all.

Madam Pomfrey finally threw his friends out, and Harry was released soon after with orders to go straight to his dormitory and go to bed. When Harry climbed into bed, he saw a present on his bedside table which read ' _to Harry, from Hagrid_.' Opening it quickly, Harry found a leather covered book, filled with wizard photographs of his parents, smiling and waving at him. Harry fell asleep with the book clutched tightly to his chest, happiness flooding through him, over even the sadness of his best friend still being in the Infirmary.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus was mentally cursing the stupidity of Gryffindor children as he worked hurriedly to get the burn salve onto Undol's body before too much damage was done by the enchanted fire he had made to protect the stone. The boy was covered from head to foot in these burns, ranging from moderate to life-threateningly severe; Albus said he had found the boy unconscious in the very room Severus had prepared to defend the Philosopher's Stone.

From what the Headmaster had learned from Potter, Undol had been in a powerful magical duel with a Voldemort possessed Quirrell, and was doing rather well against the man if Potter's word was to be trusted. Not only until Quirrell used a powerful _reducto_ curse did the boy finally go down, having been thrown backward through the magical fire separating Severus' defenses from the mirror room.

After he was finished speaking with Potter, Albus had come over to where Severus was just finishing putting the salve on the boys back. "How is he Severus," the headmaster asked.

"It's bad, Headmaster, but at this rate, he'll live," Severus replied. He was still surprised, however, at how the boy had managed to survive the fires at all. The redness of the burns was already starting to fade, even though the black fire was meant to kill any who tried to pass without the correct potion. Still, it was a fine line that the boy was walking until Severus was certain that the boy would recover completely

"When do you think he will awaken?" Albus asked, clearly desirous to learn the full measure of the story from a second perspective.

"Sometime in the night, if we are lucky, else tomorrow morning at the absolute latest." The Potions master guessed.

"Good, he should be healthy enough to attend the feast then I presume?" Albus asked.

"Probably," Severus answered vaguely, as he still wasn't completely certain. "Headmaster, I was wondering if you knew anything about these marks on his back." He indicated the two grey twisting lines that started at Undol's neck and traveled down the boy's back as well as spiraling down both his arms and legs, with runes tattooed in miniature writing all along the spirals. It was almost disturbing how exact and small they were, and Severus shuddered at the thought of how much pain having them applied could have caused.

Dumbledore studied the markings for several moments, and then finally came to a conclusion. "Ah, it explains a lot about this boy, very interesting indeed. Especially when you consider his family…"

Severus looked puzzled "What is it Albus?"

Dumbledore looked at Severus, blue eyes twinkling with excitement, "They are an ancient magic, called the Venficium, the Marks of Sorcery, a ritual that the members of the oldest groups of wizards to ever walk this earth participated in to maintain and cultivate great power. Only one family historically had close enough of contact with those beings before the vanished from history forever… However…"

The man fell silent, which Severus knew meant that he was straining his brilliant mind to come up with speculation from that point on, and when Albus recommenced speaking, it was certainly less certain than before, "But, I was not aware that the mighty wizards of old ever passed down such secrets, granted so very little is known for certain?"

Severus looked at the boy again. If indeed this boy was marked with the ritual created by those ancient wizards, it would mean he was capable of tremendous power. It answered much, but still left just as many questions, where had he received such marks, and for what purpose? Severus had no memories of the boy's father where Severus could have possibly seen such marks, as they had been in different years of Hogwarts, and Lucius, who was far closer to the man, had never mentioned such things.

"Let's not worry too much about this right now, Severus." Dumbledore said, turning to walk away, "Clearly the boy is on our side for now, since he defended Harry from Quirrell, therefore who he is and what his goals are we can figure out in due time, it would just be best to give him the benefit of our trust for the time being."

Severus turned to follow his mentor, but some small sounds from the boy turned them both back to look at Undol. Tears has blossomed between the boy's shut eyes, probably from the sheer pain that he was in, but the muttering gave a far different reasoning. "Gaze on me… Lady of gold…" he managed to say, before Undol went silent once again, but the tears continued to flow.

The two wizards exchanged glances, not knowing what the words referred to, but Severus stepped back toward the boy, feeling some sort of draw to stay at the boy's side and make sure he was healing properly.

"I'll leave you to it then," Albus said, departing to take care of other business that was of great importance to the running of the school.

Potter's friends came and left, providing a good distraction for the boy's eyes, which continually burned into Severus' back and he checked the progress of Undol's burns, constantly making sure that there was enough of the ointment applied to keep the deadly fire from doing its intended work.

Eventually, the boy himself was also dismissed, and the sun set out in the windows. Poppy Pomfrey tried several times to get Severus to depart, that she could tend to the boy just as well as he, but Severus refused. It was a strange thing, but the boy that he remembered from his years at Hogwarts had so many similarities to the boy lying before him, and Severus couldn't bear to part from him without knowing that the child was going to awaken. Or, possibly, was Severus just so desperate to see his old friend again that he was rearranging the memories in his mind to make it seem that this boy was his friend reborn?

Severus shook himself; this wasn't the time or the place to ponder such things. Eventually the boy stirred in the night, speaking in his unconsciousness, but far more clearly than before, however the words were of a language that Severus had never heard before, " _A laiqa alcar, O Ehtele lisse, Nimrodel A Nyére auta_..."

Severus smiled at this good sign. The boy's breathing had returned to normal, and he looked far more relaxed as he continued his slumber. It was clear that he would recover, and from what he could find, there was no permanent damage done to his body. It was nothing short of a miracle among a world of magic, but Severus could now rest easily knowing the son of his closest ally, aside from sweet Lily, would live to see the sun once more.

He strode out of the hospital wing to go and sleep himself, cloak billowing behind him, and never noticing his patient opening his eyes to watch him leave "Sev…" the boy groaned once, before falling back into slumber.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco wasn't sure how well he was going to enjoy the end of year feast, as on the one hand the Great Hall was bedecked in Slytherin silver and green, as they had won the House Cup. From across the room, he could also see his friends Harry, Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table, looking sullen and gloomy, but at the same time they didn't seem to see the décor or anything going on around them, and Draco knew the reasons; they were all worried about Faykan, who still hadn't been released from the Hospital Wing. Next to that knowledge, even the House Cup was a rather moot point.

But then a sudden hush fell over the entire school, Draco and many other people's heads turned to the door to the entrance hall. Faykan stood there, looking very tired and most of his body was still wrapped in bandages and salves for his injuries. Apparently Headmaster Dumbledore had pulled some strings with the hospital matron to let him attend the feast. Harry Ron and Hermione looked like they were about to rush Faykan and tackle him in their joy at seeing him awake and walking again, but at that moment Dumbledore stood and started his end of year speech, which allowed Faykan to slip silently into a seat between Harry and Ron.

"Another year gone," Dumbledore started cheerfully, "and I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts..." Many laughed, Draco included, so overjoyed he was at the sight of his friends across the hall.

"Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding," Dumbledore continued, patting the massive cup that stood on the Head Table beside him, "and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty two points; second, Ravenclaw with four hundred and twenty six points; and in first place, Slytherin, with four hundred and seventy two points."

Draco cheered with the rest of Slytherin house, able to enjoy the victory now that he was sure that his friends were safe and well. Down the table from him, Nott was banging his goblet on the table enthusiastically, sneering toward Harry, Faykan and the other Gryffindors. Even Draco felt a little sick watching him, and that soured his mood over the Cup once again, so that he settled down far sooner than the rest of his housemates.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore, shushing them with his hands as he continued, "however, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. Some of the Slytherins' smiles faded a little. Draco was watching the Headmaster whose eyes were twinkling, and suddenly Draco knew a bit of what the old man must be planning. Those who saved the Stone were going to be rewarded.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore, breaking the sudden silence. "I have a few last minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes... First to both Misters Ronald Weasley, and Draco Malfoy..."

Draco went pale; he looked over at Ron, who looked like he was turning into a radish at the sudden attention from the entire school.

But Dumbledore continued, much to the confusion of some of the students that hadn't heard all the rumors that were circling about the five first years and their end of term adventure "...for the best played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor and Slytherin house fifty points each."

The cheers from the student nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Some Slytherins patted Draco on the back, but the reaction from the other tables was all directed at Ron. His older brother Percy could be heard even from the Slytherin table telling the other prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! He got past McGonagall's giant chess set!" Fred and George could be seen forcing the golden crown Faykan had transfigured back onto Ron's head.

At last there was silence again before Dumbledore continued, "Second to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

Hermione buried her face in her arms; Draco strongly suspected she had burst into tears. Gryffindors up and down the table were beside themselves, they were a fifty points up.

"Third to Mr. Faykan Undol…" Dumbledore continued. "For the will to be a beacon of strength when others were in grave peril, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

Faykan just smiled up at Dumbledore, before some foolish Gryffindor slapped him on the back and he almost fell off his chair, apparently the burns were still rather raw. The Gryffindors were going mad with their cheers; they were now one hundred points up.

"Fourth… to Mr. Harry Potter..." said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet, waiting for the verdict, "for pure nerve and outstanding courage; I award Gryffindor house sixty points."

The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had five hundred and twenty two points, exactly the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the house cup… if Dumbledore had given Harry just one more point…

Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent. "There are all kinds of courage," the Headmaster said, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

The Hall exploded, Draco and the Slytherins didn't clap, but internally he was very happy for his friends. Nott looked like Christmas had been cancelled, the look of horror on his face almost made Draco laugh out loud. The cup didn't matter to him anymore. The cheers from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables were dwarfed by the roars of delight coming from the Gryffindor table. Neville had disappeared under a pile of people congratulating him with slaps to the back, hugs from girls, and handshakes.

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, which died down as the Headmaster spoke. "Assuming my calculations are correct, a change of decorations is in order."

He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver turned to gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Draco looked at Harry; his friend looked like he was having the time of his life.

And for him, Draco was very glad. Now he could truly enjoy the ending feast.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The last few days of the school year were the best Harry could have hoped for. He completely forgot about the exam results until they were handed out by Professor McGonagall.

Harry and Ron both had passed with good marks, Draco had done better, and Hermione had the best grades of the first years, but only barley beating Faykan, whose bad History of Magic essay was the only reason he wasn't first in the class "But Binns' nonsense is all inaccurate!" he complained loudly, but his heart was clearly not into his argument, as he finally just let it go, letting Hermione have the spotlight as smartest in their class.

Before Harry realized it, they were speeding back to muggle London on the Hogwarts Express, the teachers had passed them all notes to inform them that magic was not to be used outside of school. Faykan had ignored his, and Harry had a suspicion that he might get into major trouble over the summer.

Only once they were all locked into their own compartment, did Harry finally remember even a portion of the many, many questions they had for Faykan. "So, how much of what has happened can you tell us, truthfully?" Harry asked his best friend pointedly, while Draco, Hermione and Ron all glanced over in sudden interest.

"There isn't much yet, but I promise soon I will be able to tell much more," Faykan said, caught slightly off guard by the sudden change of their topics of discussion, "I am probably a bit more advanced in magic than I ever let on, but there was reasons, such as when we fought with Voldemort and Quirrell. There are many secrets that are tied to my family, and until I know for certain that I can assist you protect them also I can't share them with you. Not long yet, maybe a year or two, but you will know all before…" he stopped suddenly, shaking his head to prevent himself from spilling something else.

That was all that they could get out of him, despite each in turn giving it a chance, but Faykan was not like Hagrid, able to be tricked into giving information that he was to keep secret, and Harry had to accept that this wasn't the time for them to learn more, and he allowed the flow of conversation to return to more normal things.

As they all changed back into the muggle clothes, Draco almost choked on his Every Flavored Beans that he was eating, as the pureblood boy would be leaving directly from the station with his parents, when he saw the tattoos Faykan sported on his back, which made them all laugh loudly.

Finally it was time, as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Faykan exited the barrier back to the muggle world, Harry could see Ron's family waiting for them.

"There he is, Mom, there he is, look!" said Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Ron. "Harry Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see…"

"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point." The red headed woman said, smiling down at them as they approached, "Busy year?" she asked.

"Very," said Harry. "Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley."

Faykan merely smiled as Mrs. Weasley looked between them all. "Oh, it was nothing, dear." She said, suddenly flustered at being thanked for something almost six months previous.

Ron finally turned to Harry, Faykan and Hermione, just as his family started to leave, "You must come and stay this summer," said Ron, "all three of you… I'll send you each an owl." He called as he rushed to catch up with the rest of his family.

The Dursleys hadn't come to collect Harry, but Hermione's parents graciously offered to drop Harry and Faykan off at Privet drive, which they accepted. As Harry and Faykan walked up to the door, they turned back to wave as the Grangers drove off, and Faykan finally told Harry "Oh by the way, let me handle the Dursleys, there are going to be some pretty big changes this summer." Harry only grinned as they reached the door and rang the doorbell, although the thought of how they were forbidden to use magic still bothered him…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus positively beamed as he found the book he was searching for, bringing it down from a high shelf in the Hogwarts library. The answer to all the mysteries had been ridiculously easy to solve, as the House of Undol had been a prominent pure blood family for generations. The Pure-Blood Directory was carefully and continuously updated by the recorders in The Ministry.

Flipping the book to the table of contents, Albus smiled as the Undol name gleamed toward the bottom of the list of twenty-nine pure blood families that remained in supposed _sacred_ status among the wizarding nobility.

Thumbing through the pages to the back of the book, Albus searched until he came to the prescribed page number… only to find the entry blasted with magic, blackening out the majority of the page and preventing Albus from reading its entirety. Only scraps of information remained, acknowledging that the Undol's were very secretive, and the most ancient of all families in Britain, holding vast amounts of magical potential that they somehow managed to preserve from generation to generation, and that they had a very long streak of making dire enemies with the followers of the Dark Arts, usually leading to the prominent members of the family's deaths.

There were also side notes about their family wealth, which was not calculated by wizarding standards, as Gringotts refused to speak about that family specifically, but they were known to have houses on the continent, where they had originally come from.

Closing the book with a sigh, Albus pondered his next move. Someone, presumably an Undol, had destroyed the entry in the Hogwarts copy of the book. There were most likely other copies that Albus could find, but the majority of those would be kept by the wizarding aristocracy, many of whom Albus was not welcome to make requests from. The Weasley's might have a copy, but more likely not, as the book did not show them in the best of lights.

The problem had Albus rather stumped for the moment, but it was no matter. He would eventually unravel this mystery. He at least had some added information from Faykan Undol directly, when he had gone to visit the boy the morning of the leaving feast.

The boy had been in extremely good spirits, even singing in the Infirmary, a thing that normally Albus would have expected Poppy Pomfrey to disapprove of, but the Matron was smiling happily as she went about her duties, the boy's music seemingly having a calming effect on the entire room, not that there were any other patients.

" _From the West she appeared… sunlight and stars in her hair. In her eyes an undying memory of home, a land that is magical and fair. When her feet came to rest deep in a canopied glade, she lifted her face and there as she danced, the realm of Lothlórien she made! Gaze on my Lady of gold! Reawaken my slumbering soul! Beacon of courage summon me home, to your haven of wonders untold!_ " he had started as Albus had approached, the enchanting melody spinning a vision in the old wizards mind of an endless forest, glittering with golden leaves, and some ancient Fae queen that existed beyond description.

It sounded so much like a tale that wizards would have told their children, but there was something that Albus couldn't place, something mysterious that had the ring of truth to it. But any thoughts of the meaning behind the song were dashed with the boy's next verse, and Albus' eye shot up in horror.

" _Lórien laurë! A laiqa alcar. O Ehtele lisse Nimrodel A Nyére auta! A Lórien laurë! A Lórien laurë! Lórien laurë! A laiqa alcar! Orë áro… Lothlórien!_ " the boy sang out, the ancient language of power radiating golden in his boyish voice, but Albus reached forward swiftly, taking Mr. Undol by the shoulder and interrupting the song before he continued. He regretted the sudden dimming of the world around him as the song abruptly ended, but there were things that one ought not to play with as a toy or casual thing, and the ancient language from where all spells came was the greatest of these.

The boy had looked at him in confusion, as if to question why such a good and great thing was to be denied, and Albus just shook his head, unable to explain even in the smallest part such a powerful and deep secret of their ancient history to one so young, although how the boy knew so much already didn't at the time strike him as odd from what he had already learned from Severus in examining the Venficium on his back. the spoke briefly after that, mainly confirming parts of Harry's story that Albus hadn't thought that the boy had remembered quite exactly, as well as touched on how Faykan had so effectively fought off Quirrell, but the boy was rather tight lipped regarding that matter, stating that it was imperative to his own safety that such things as his abilities remain secrets.

Albus had left it at that for the time being, only offering his deep gratitude that the boy had chance befriended Harry so early, and kept him safe. But the parting state of the boy had been the straw that set Albus' seeking his answers elsewhere. "Of course, while others were content to leave him alone to find his own path, I chose to make sure he had some light showing him the way…"

Albus was even now wondering why he had let the conversation end there, regardless of whatever thing he had to deal with as Headmaster that were pressing matters at the end of another school year, and demanded that the boy answer his questions, such as why the boy knew something so close to the details of how Harry had arrived at the Durleys. There were none but Minerva and Hagrid that knew that, and if this boy was indeed hinting at that knowledge, which meant that he had to be a strong Seer as well as all his other gifts, then what else had the boy Seen?

Albus was old, very old for a wizard, and therefore had many things in his long life that he wasn't proud of, things he'd very much prefer remained unknown to the world at large, at least until he left this world, and some had ties to people that still lived, things that could be extremely dangerous if the wrong people discovered them accidentally.

That was why now, not even a week later, Albus was still pondering over the boy, what he possibly could know or do, and whether it was possible that the boy was a threat to all that Albus had striven to build over his lifetime. Only time, and intense study would tell, and from all the seeming roadblocks thrown in his way, he would have to wait until Harry and his friends returned to Hogwarts to hope for another chance to learn more.

 **End of Year One…**

 _(A) Lórien laurë : (O)_ _Golden Lórien (Land of Gold)_

 _A laiqa alcar : O green splendour_

 _O Ehtele lisse : and sweet spring_

 _Nimrodel : Lady of the White Grotto_

 _A Nyére auta : O sorrow leaves_

 _Orë áro : rising day_

 _Lothlórien :_ _Lothlórien (Lórien of the Blossom)_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, read at your own risk!**

 _So, major changes here, starting with Severus' perspective, intensifying the seriousness of Faykan's injuries, as it led him to be even more of a gary-sue when he was more or less unharmed by the black fire, Culmulating in the addition of yet another song about Middle Earth, that was later reflected in the new Albus section, which I felt shows much more about why Albus becomes so eagerly interesting in Fay over all else, aside from guiding and protecting Harry._

 _I've tried quite hard to retell this story as I had initially imagined it, that Albus was not a villain, but just a misguided and somewhat outdated hero, still trying to cling to his former glory and do what was right. The song as well was taken from the little known Lord of the Rings Musical, hinting at yet another character that will eventually make her way into the story (albeit not for some time yet). I hope to build more connections and tie things in better as we press on into book two, and especially once three through five commence._

 _Many people may be annoyed to know that Year 2 (Chamber of Secrets) will as of yet still focus heavily on the canon storyline, but as in the first edition many misunderstand what I am attempting to accomplish. Faykan isn't trying to change the storyline like a bolt of lightning, he's just as blind to some events as the others, and he can only adapt and alter events as we, the readers, know them after some time of integrating himself into the groups and policies of the Wizarding World and making a difference therein. that is part of the purpose of why he was given Narya on Christmas. it was a reminder that he was to guide the hearts of men, rather than control them, but that is a development as to who he is and why he is there that is better mentioned at a different time, rather than spoiling the major mystery so early, aside from those who have read the original and already know._

 _~F_


	13. Y2-Prologue: Relative Connections

_So, many thanks to those who have reviewed both the first part of Age of Magic, as well as those who went back and reviewed chapters of the original series. As promised, the series will continue in a one story format, and swell to massive size as we progress through the entirety of the story. so please, enjoy the prologue of year 2. ~F_

 **New Player Year 2: Secrets and Speakers**

 **Prologue**

 **Relative Connections**

"Oh by the way," Faykan said as he and Harry arrived at the front door to number Four, Privet Drive, "let me handle the Dursleys, there are going to be some pretty big changes this summer."

Harry was still very concerned about what his best friend was planning, but before he could voice any of these Fay had already reached forward and rang the doorbell. After a few moments the door opened a crack, revealing the long face of Harry's Aunt Petunia.

She gasped at the sight of them and tried to slam the door in the boys' faces, but Faykan had slid his foot into the gap and with a counter-shove, sent the door crashing open. With a sarcastic grin splitting his face, Faykan led Harry back into the Dursleys' home, looking down at Petunia, who had fallen to the ground in her attempt to brace the door closed.

"Hello, Petunia, we've returned for the summer." Faykan said coldly. Aunt Petunia couldn't respond; she was too stunned that a twelve year old boy had managed to force the door open over her strength in holding it shut.

Unfortunately for her, neither Faykan nor Harry were mere boys, they were wizards. Wizards who had just returned from their first year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As Faykan, whom the Dursleys only knew at Piter De Vries, which was a name he had created for himself, walked into the living room of the muggle's house, Dudley Dursley, who had been watching the telly, gaped at him while Vernon Dursley rose from him chair in a towering rage. "How dare you come back here with your _freakishness_!" he said in an icy voice, trying to be as intimidating as possible.

"Silence!" Faykan thundered in response, and the entire room seemed to darken as the boy spoke. "Harry Potter shall continue to reside here during the summers Dursley, and no one shall stop him. He shall be treated as a human being, given an actual room, sufficient food three times a day, and so help me, if I hear otherwise I shall bring this house down around your ears. Do I make myself clear Dursley?" Uncle Vernon could only stare in utter horror as the boy in front of him seemed to glow with unbridled power, and sending small items flying around the room.

Finally, sending Vernon a final tremendous glare, Faykan stormed up the stairs to Dudley's second bedroom, Harry right behind him carrying their trunks awkwardly. As they entered, Harry noted the massive amount of broken and unused toys that filled the room. Faykan simple shook his head in sadness, and pulled from his right sleeve his wand, made of a pale Elm but blacked in some places from the fire that had burnt most of the boy's body earlier that month.

"Fay," Harry said suddenly as he saw the wand, "We're not allowed to use magic outside of school…"

Faykan turned and smiled at Harry, "The Ministry had far better things to do than even try and monitor my magic Harry…" he said dismissively.

Faykan then proceeded to vanish or repair everything in the room, leaving it looking nearly pristine for Harry's use. Meanwhile Harry unpacked his trunk, stowing his clothes in the wardrobe so they wouldn't wrinkle and piling his spell books, quills, ink and wand onto the desk Faykan repaired from being lopsided. Hedwig's cage went next to the window, with its door open so she could come and go as she pleased.

When he was finally finished, Faykan turned to watch as Harry placed his Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick on a shelf above the writing desk.

"Well, Harry that should take care of your relatives for the summer holidays. I'll write you often, but I'm going to be away for a bit while I take care of some of my late family's business. I should be back to pick you up around your birthday to take you to the Weasleys for the rest of the summer." Faykan said turning to the door.

"Why can't I just go with you now?" Harry asked, wanting Fay to stay a bit longer at the very least, if not escape being around his relatives a bit longer.

"I wish that I could take you with me, _Kentano_ , but I pass into places that could be dangerous for one not of my family, and you need to remain for a time here, as the powers that protected you from Voldemort lie here, in the root of your mother's family." Faykan explained gently, understanding in his eyes as he spoke.

Harry was saddened by the pronouncement, but he understood now that it was out of care for him that he was left here, although it raised more questions about why here of all places, but those were more questions to give to Professor Dumbledore, who seemed to be more aware of Harry's home life from what he had guessed during their conversations the previous year.

"Fay," Harry said and his best friend turned back one final time from leaving the room, "Thanks, for everything I mean,"

"You're very much welcome Harry." was the boy's reply, Fay smiling brightly at Harry, almost with a glimmer of sadness in his eyes that confused Harry when he spotted it.

But with that, Faykan had left, striding down the stairs, and after he shot a death glare at the Dursleys, he disappeared out the door and was gone. Harry watched him from the window as he crossed the street and disappeared from view, before he settled down on his new bed, in his new room and looked around. Harry couldn't have been happier. Sure he was stuck with the Dursley for the rest of the month, but he would survive, especially with their fear of Faykan demolishing the house if they dared to mistreat Harry.

Yes, Harry thought, things were definitely going to be different here from now on. Not only was he no longer just the waif that lived under the stairs, but he had gained something great, even if there were dangers and other problems in the Wizarding World that he had discovered first hand. Regardless, he wouldn't have had it any other way.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Morning dawned over Malfoy Manor just as it normally did, with the lazy attitude of those who had all that one could ever want in life, peaceful and comfortable. Draco Malfoy was sitting in library, reading one of the many books that his godfather, Professor Severus Snape had sent him for his birthday.

Granted his birthday was at the beginning of June, when he was still in school at Hogwarts, but the thoughtful man knew that Draco loved any excuse to spend time with his parents, and opening presents was as good as any, so he had made sure that all the books were specifically tailored to help with Draco's studies for the next school year.

It was there that Draco first saw the fireplace, one of the few connected to the Floo outside of the main parlor that was able to be entered from the outside, as it roared with emerald green flames. Looking up from his book in surprise, Draco saw his close Gryffindor friend, Faykan Undol, step through the flames with ease, brushing soot off his dark blue robes and sporting a large grin at seeing the Blond Slytherin.

"Good morning, Draco." He said as he approached, casually looking over the book in Draco's hands.

Draco on the other hand, raised his eyebrows in further confusion, no one was able to Floo directly into Malfoy Manor unless they were either previously keyed into the wards, which hadn't happened since his father was Draco's age, or the person in question had been specifically invited by someone of the Malfoy bloodline.

Shaking his head in hopelessness, Draco chalked it up to Faykan simply being himself. The other boy was always full of these kinds of surprises, so Draco simple had to presume that his family had to have been keyed into the wards at one time before he was born. "Hello Fay," he responded finally, watching as the Gryffindor boy walk to the door and snapped his fingers, summoning a house elf as though he had lived here for years.

Dobby appeared, bowing low to the guest and Faykan asked the elf to summon Lucius Malfoy directly, Draco's father. The elf disappeared with a pop and Faykan turned to sit in a chair opposite Draco.

"So, what brings you here today Fay?" Draco finally asked after marking his place in the book. What he wanted to ask however was more along the lines of, 'What are you doing here, and how is it possible,' but he was more than sure that line of thought would get no answers whatsoever.

"I'm staying here for about a month or so." Faykan replied bluntly, grinning at Draco's look of disbelief. At that moment however, Draco's father strode in, took one fleeting look at Faykan, turned to speak to Draco, and then made a double take, his own mouth falling open in complete disarmed surprise.

"Hello, Uncle Lucius," Faykan said calmly as Lucius stared the boy, slowly regaining his composure. Draco could scarcely believe his eyes or his ears, as there was no one in this world who would call his father, 'Uncle Lucius...' nor was it possible for anyone, he had thought, to so thoroughly shake the cold façade that Lucius Malfoy wore.

"Child, just who exactly are you?" Lucius asked, his face returning to its perfectly calm mask, but Draco could see the gears in his father's head spinning in high speed, trying to sort out the puzzle of this boy he had apparently never seen before.

"Faykan Undol, Sir, you would probably remember my father far better, you and he were in the same year at Hogwarts so long ago." Fay replied, smiling with a shyness that Draco knew on sight to be totally false, "From what I've read about him, he presided over your wedding to Miss. Narcissa Black."

Lucius' eye widened with recognition and the normally cold and distant man actually smiled, astonishing Draco, who somehow could tell it was one of genuine pleasure, as his father sized up the son of his close friend. "I wasn't aware;" he began coolly, "That Faykan the seventh had had any children before his tragic accident..."

"Yes, he was rather a private person my father, a trait Draco will attest strongly that he passed on to me." Faykan replied, beaming up at the man.

"Yes, that was one of the things that was quite irritating about him," Lucius replied, smiling for a moment in memory, before settling back to his normal business-like tones, "So, what brings you to our home, Mr. Undol?" he asked, seeming to want to ask the same sort of questions Draco had initially, and hitting the same wall of how to do so without seeming the fool.

"I wish to request if I might abide in your humble home for the next month while I work out the final business of my magical inheritance from my parent's tragic deaths." Faykan said solemnly, looking down in reverence for the dead. "The last of my family that had claim over me have passed away as well, leaving me the only recipient of a sizeable sum of wealth, and I need to work out how exactly a twelve year old is to be expected to manage such a large estate in effective absentee while I go to Hogwarts with Draco and our mutual friends…"

Draco almost smirked at the look on his father's face when he heard that Faykan was already Draco's friend, it was about as close to pride that he had ever seen on the man's face in regards to something to do with Draco himself. "And, may I ask what House you were sorted into, just for curiosities sake," Lucius asked, killing whatever good feelings that Draco had.

"Gryffindor, Uncle, which I know is strange for my family," Faykan replied flawlessly, not noticing the slight stiffening of Lucius' posture, "but I suppose that it was meant to be, as I had to be the strong one in the family to make sure everything held together for so long, before finding out who I truly was and what that meant…"

Lucius made no reply, but did settle a bit more, probably recovering from the horrid thought of a child of his friend being in his most hated house.

"I also would like to reacquire the family records and other personal items my father left with you before he died, according to his will, if you would indulge me." Faykan added, still smiling.

Lucius inclined his head slightly, "Of course," he said, "Dobby shall make sure you have everything you need, your room will be across the hall from Draco's," he added looking at Draco, who nodded back.

With that his father left from the room and Faykan turned back to Draco smiling softly, "Well, that was near painless, don't you agree?"

Those were some of the strangest days of Draco's summer that year. Faykan was always seemingly up with the sun, and still stayed awake late into the night, spent most of his time inside the Manor going over the items that had belonged to his parents.

Sometimes Draco tagged along, mainly because he was curious about his friend and his past, but for the most part Faykan would store the items Dobby brought to him in his large trunk, or he spent time writing letter after letter, (Draco presumed they mainly were to Harry, Ron or Hermione) or else he was pouring over the family bloodline records Lucius brought to him when he requested them. Faykan was particularly interested in the Sacred Twenty-Nine families that made up the Core of the true British purebloods.

Occasionally, Draco would take the time to look at some of the lines of his own ancestors from the different pureblood families over Faykan's shoulder, but none of the information made a lot of sense, or was particularly interesting to Draco, as he couldn't reference the information with anything he was familiar with, the records were of the early Middle Ages or older, which most families hadn't been able to chart back to. Faykan took great amounts of time personally filling in lines where his family's record was incomplete from both Malfoy and Black family records, with Lucius' permission.

A few times Faykan had join Draco is some more normal activities, but never flying, which was something of a disappointment. He did however gladly play chess and other small games of luck and skill, which showed to Draco something important, Fay held back when he played games, although he didn't forgive foolish mistakes or intentional blunders, but he was fare enough that Draco learned a bit more about the games they played every time.

He sang quite a lot, mostly at night, and the range and power of his voice was such that it tended to carry throughout the manor when he was in a good mood and singing something sweet and joyous. Once Draco caught his father listening in the corridor outside the line of rooms that Faykan inhabited while he stayed with them, and Draco would swear up and down that there were tears in his stoic father's eyes, but the man denied it and strode away quickly.

But mostly the songs that Fay sang carried a great weight of grief and sadness, something that Draco couldn't completely understand, but he believed strongly that it had to do with the great losses that the boy had suffered early in life.

Finally on July thirtieth, Faykan bid farewell to the Malfoys and took his leave, disappearing into the Floo network. When Draco opened the book he had been reading the day Faykan left, he found a handwritten note left by his friend, reading:

' _Princess_ _Kairan Telcontar & Lord Aethodry Black: F.A. 78'_

But whatever it was supposed to mean was lost on Draco, and he stowed it away, thinking it was something that Fay had just forgotten and that he would return to him at Hogwarts.

 **Potential Spoilers ahead, you have been warned!**

 _So, in addition to a chapter title change, once again, there were added details primarily to the beginning of the Draco section, which was meant to better connect Lucius to the previous Faykan who attending during the Marauder Era, but there will be more on that in year 3. There was also a more tender moment that I felt was necessary when Fay left Harry at the Dursleys, which in the original was not present, and I felt that I made more sense that Harry wouldn't really want Fay to leave, which produced the scene in question._

 _More to come! Enjoy! Reviews appreciated and so forth. ~F_


	14. Y2-C1: Enchanted Lifestyle

_Another month gone, where does the time fly? many thanks to those who reviewed, your comments are well appreciated! and yes, I know that this and the previous book were mostly unchanged from the original, but I can sense that the 3rd book will start to have a significant increase of additions and revisions that occur to it, book 2 always felt as more of an interlude to me, but I'm still working on it, so who knows what inspiration might strike given enough encouragement, hint hint... on with the chapter ~F_

 **Chapter One**

 **Enchanted Lifestyle**

On the whole, Harry would have had to say that his time at Privet Drive this summer was probably the best time he could ever remember with the Dursleys. True, they were more or less ignoring him as much as possible, and only interacted with him at meal times, when he was seated right across from them, and no more than to pass a plate of food grudgingly when he asked, but Harry couldn't care any less.

Harry spent as much time as he could in his room, finishing off his summer homework for his teachers and responding to the many letters he received from Ron, Hermione and Faykan, many coming in almost every other day. Faykan told him that he was spending some time with Draco and that he sent his greetings, explaining that he couldn't write to him because it would be unpleasant if his father found out.

Harry wasn't really sure he understood why that was, but responded that he didn't fault Draco for his father's preferences. He made a note to ask Fay about that in greater detail when the other boy returned to see him off to the Weasleys, as it just didn't seem the kind of thing to discuss in a letter.

The night before his birthday, Harry was sitting at the dinner table with the Dursleys, tolerating their poorly concealed actions of disdain and anger at his presence, when the front door opened on its own and Faykan walked in. All three Dursleys froze; panic and fear evident in their eyes, but Faykan merely ignored them and conjured an extra chair, sitting down next to Harry. "Evening Harry, everything going well I hope?" he said cheerily.

Harry could only nod, as his mouth was full of mash, and Faykan turned his head to smile at the Dursleys, "You see, I knew you could behave yourselves, as a reward I'll be taking Harry away to our friend Ron's place for the rest of the summer. Expect Harry to return next summer for about the same amount of time…" he added as he stood once more, leaving the conjured chair, which clashed horribly with the rest of Aunt Petunia's kitchen, and glanced down at Harry's cleaned plate, "come on Harry lets go make sure you're packed for Hogwarts."

They left the Dursleys at the table, still completely petrified at Fay's presence, and went upstairs. Harry started pulling things out of drawers and his small cupboard, laying out everything he needed from the house on his bed carefully while Faykan sent Hedwig with a letter to Ron, explaining that they were on their way and to expect them within hours of Hedwig's arrival, and stopped Harry when he was about to start packing things into the trunk.

"I got it from here," he said, waving his wand, and all of Harry's extra belongings flew into the air, arranged themselves into the tightest method possible, and started falling into the trunk like the game Tetris, which Harry had seen Dudley play once, before he got frustrated and broke it throwing the entire system across the room.

All that was left after Fay's spell completed was a heavy cloak, Harry's wand and his broom. "You'll need that Harry, were flying to the Burrow." Fay said, replying to Harry's confused look at why his broom hadn't been packed.

"The Burrow?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"It's the name of Ron's house," Faykan replied, unshrinking his own broom, a sleek, black-wooded model that Harry didn't recognize from the magazines that he had read the previous year about popular brooms in Britain. It was completely glossy from tip to bristle with no markings or decorations etched into the midnight wood whatsoever.

Faykan shrunk Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage, giving them both to Harry to carry in his pockets. They then trouped outside, past the Dursleys, who froze like frightened animals until they left, after which they heard the door lock loudly and saw the window shades were closed rapidly. They continued around the house and into the backyard where they mounted their brooms and kicked off, soaring straight up, over the clouds and into the night sky.

Harry relished the moment, weaving back and forth, and performing Quidditch maneuvers while Faykan kept them on course for their destination. "I thought you told Draco last year you didn't have a broom," Harry shouted to Faykan at one point, and the boy just shrugged.

He really didn't have to answer, as Harry could already guess the real reason. Faykan was extremely averse to showing off, and with an unmarked, unknown broom type, which had to be custom made, the jealousy that it would cause would have potentially ruined what had turned out to be an incredible friendship.

After what seemed like hours of flying through the clouds, Faykan started angling his broom for a decent. Harry was thankful that they were almost at Ron's by that point; his hands were numb from the frigid night air, and all the acrobatics and other things he had done to keep himself amused hadn't helped. As they passed below the cloudbank, Harry could see a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees. "Not much farther now," Faykan shouted over the roaring wind as it whipped past their speeding brooms.

Finally, Harry could see a large building with four or five chimneys in the distance. Faykan put on a boost of speed to his broom, Harry having no trouble keeping up. They finally landed in the small yard, scattering several chickens in the early dawn light. As the two boys marched up to the front door, Harry noticed the lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance that read, _'The Burrow'_.

Around the front door lay a jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron Harry almost tripped over due to the numbness of his limbs. Faykan shrunk his broom, pocketed it, and finally knocked briskly on the door before pushing it open and motioning for Harry to enter.

Harry entered a rather small, and mercifully very warm, kitchen with a scrubbed wooden table a chairs in the middle of the room. Harry couldn't help but look around in wonder, almost forgetting the numbness in his hands and fingers, he having never been in a wizarding house before. The clock on the wall opposite him had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like: _'Time to make tea'_ , _'Time to feed the chickens'_ , and _'You're late'_. Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece, books with titles like _'Charm Your Own Cheese'_ , _'Enchantment in Baking'_ , and _'One Minute Feasts - It's Magic!'_ _It was simply glorious to him._

Just as Harry and Faykan made their way to a large uneven and winding staircase, the short, plump form of Mrs. Weasley appeared at the bottom, smiling at the two boys with her arms held out wide. "I'm very pleased to see you, Harry, dear," she said pulling him into an embrace. Turning to Faykan, she repeated the motion, drawing the small, thin boy into her arms despite his obvious reluctance. "Oh Faykan, dear, you needn't be shy here. Thank you for taking the trouble of getting Harry here on such short notice," she turned back to Harry, "We were going to pick you up ourselves in two weeks, but Faykan offered to get you before your birthday and well, we couldn't say no to having a party here for you on the correct day."

Harry blushed at the mention of a party. "You really needn't do…" he began, but Mrs. Weasley brushed him off, "But we'd be delighted to Harry, Ron told us how your relatives treated you until you came to Hogwarts, and it just kills me to think that you hadn't even had a proper birthday… but never mind that right now, come along and I'll whip up some breakfast." She said as she herded both boys back into the kitchen. They sat at the table and waited for only a short time as she bustled around, putting eggs and sausages into a frying pan with some of the most fluid wand-work Harry had ever seen.

After a few moments the wonderful smell of hot food was wafting throughout the house, and the other residents started to stir, almost as if on instinct. The first to arrive were the twins, Fred and George, who smiled widely when they saw Harry and Faykan, "Look who arrived bright and early this morning," Mrs. Weasley cheerfully called to Ron who came down minutes later, still in pajamas and yawning loudly.

Harry wasn't sure either he or Fay they could handle the amount of food that Mrs. Wealsey was giving to them however, as she was at one moment tipping eight or nine sausages onto each of Harry's and Faykan's plates, then she was adding three large fried eggs for each boy the next, all the while muttering to herself about how dreadfully thin they both were.

Faykan looked like he was going to mention that they were perfectly normal sizes for their age, but at that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress, which appeared in the kitchen, gave a small squeal, and ran out again.

"Ginny," said Ron in an undertone to Harry. "My sister; she's been talking about you all summer." He added with a playful smirk.

After Faykan and Harry had waded through their fourth helpings, somehow, as Mrs. Weasley insisted on them eating as much as they possibly could, the door opened and the thin, balding Mr. Weasley walked in.

"Morning Weasleys," he called, and he sat down at the table amidst the responses of "morning dad," from his sons.

"What a night," he mumbled, groping for the teapot. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned..." Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea, sighed, and looked around the table, finally settling his eyes on the Faykan and Harry, "Ah, hello there Faykan, and this must be Harry Potter, Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about you of course." he said holding his hand out for Harry to shake. Fred then asked him about the raids he was on and Mr. Weasley dived into the details, allowing Ron, Faykan, and Harry to excuse themselves and head up the stairs to Ron's room, which Ron informed them that they would all be sharing for the rest of the summer.

They all climbed the five separate flights of stairs until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, declaring _'Ronald's Room'_. Once they stepped in however, Harry and Faykan were assaulted by the color orange immediately. Faykan actually staggered back and almost fell down the stairs at how explosive and plentiful the color was in the room.

Harry realized that this was so because Ron had covered every inch of the wallpaper with posters of the same seven people, all wearing bright orange robes carrying broomstick and waving energetically.

"Your Quidditch team?" Harry asked, already predicting the answer.

"The Chudley Cannons," said Ron proudly, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C's and a speeding cannonball. "Ninth in the league."

"Orange much?" Faykan said finally getting to his feet and adjusting to the dramatic color change as he entered the room, but Ron simply shrugged, clearly it was a color he was used to by now, if not his favorite.

"It's a bit small," said Ron quickly, suddenly becoming self-conscious about his room. "Not like that room you had with the Muggles, from what I've heard. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he's always banging on the pipes and groaning..."

But Harry, grinning widely, said, "This is the best house I've ever been in."

Ron's ears went pink at the compliment.

They actually took a nap for starters, as Harry and Faykan had been flying through the night to get there, and Ron understood completed, allowing them to have the room to themselves for a few hours, but by lunch they were wide awake and ready to have fun.

Harry was so eager to learn all about the things in the Wealsey's house, and all the Wizarding games and toys that he had never experienced before. Faykan had to literally hold his sides to keep from laughing at Harry's excitement, while Ron showed him every little thing, a mixture of pride and embarrassment when Harry bombarded him with questions about each and every item in his room.

That same evening, Harry was led blindfolded down to the Weasley's kitchen, and was surprised to find that it had been completely redecorated in gold and red balloons and streamers. The table was covered in a scarlet tablecloth with a giant chocolate cake in the center that read: _'Happy Birthday Harry Potter: 12'_ in white icing letters. All of the Weasleys and Faykan were seated around the table grinning broadly at Harry, leaving one place open, directly in front of the cake. As Mrs. Weasley lit the candles with her wand, everyone sang Happy Birthday to Harry as loudly and noisily as they could.

Harry only had a handful of presents, but he didn't care. Faykan had given Harry a sleeve holster for his wand that he said was enchanted to only be removable by Harry himself, Hermione had sent him a broom care and maintenance kit by owl, with a card wishing him the best birthday, and Ron gave him a large stack of Chocolate Frogs. Harry couldn't have been happier. As he drifted off to sleep in Ron's room that night, while listening to the breathing of his two best friends, he couldn't imagine life being any more wonderful.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Over the next few weeks, Harry learned that life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life on Privet Drive. The Dursleys liked everything neat and orderly; the Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected from every corner. Harry got quite a shock from the talking mirror that commented on the tidiness of the person's appearance, while Faykan almost fell out an open window when the ghoul in the attic first starting howling and banging pipes around. Small explosions from Fred and George's bedroom were also apparently considered perfectly normal.

By far the strangest thing for Harry was the fact that he was surrounded by people who really liked him. Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of his socks and tried to force him and Faykan, who she was much less successful with, to eat four or more helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley liked Harry to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could ask him question after question about life with Muggles; asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked, constantly saying how ingenious they were to have found so many different ways of getting along without magic.

Harry heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after he and Faykan had arrived at the Burrow. He, Faykan and Ron went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Harry, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge bowl to the floor with a loud clatter. Ginny clearly seemed very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room, however he never said anything. She dived under the table to retrieve the bowl and emerged with her face glowing like the setting sun. Pretending he hadn't noticed this, Harry sat down and took the toast Mrs. Weasley offered him.

"Letters from school," said Mr. Weasley, passing the three boys identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you're here, Harry, he doesn't miss a trick, that man." Faykan sniggered slightly, but covered it with a cough. "You two've got them, too," Mr. Weasley added as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pajamas.

For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Harry's told him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books he'd need for the coming year.

 _SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:_

 _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk_

 _Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart_

 _Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart_

 _Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart_

 _Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart_

 _Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart_

 _Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart_

 _Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart_

Fred commented on how they were all assigned to buy all the books written by Lockhart and how the new Defense Against the Darks Arts must be a fan of his, heavily implying that it had to be a witch. George also added that the books were very expensive.

Looking worried, Mrs. Weasley responded, "We'll just have to manage. I expect that we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand."

"Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked, turning to Ginny.

She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming red hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish. Fortunately no one saw this except Harry, because just then Ron's elder brother Percy walked in. He was already fully dressed, his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest, which both Fred and George were quick to start making fun of him for.

After breakfast, Harry, Ron, Fred, George and Faykan all went up the hill to a small paddock the Weasleys owned. Since it was surrounded by trees that blocked the view from the village nearby it allowed them to play Quidditch as long as they didn't fly too high. Since they didn't want to risk uneasy explanations they threw apples around instead of using real Quidditch balls, each taking turns on Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand except for Faykan, who used his own broom that he had flown to the Burrow upon.

As he resized it and mounted, Fred looked up and down the black handle of the broomstick, he let out a whistle, "Whoa Fay, is that what I think that is?" Faykan returned a look that seemed to affirm Fred's question, and said, "That depends, if you think it's a custom built broom, then yes it is." All four other boys whistled in amazement, custom brooms were very rare and generally better than anything on the market, given the spell work of the creator. It also confirmed exactly what Harry had suspected regarding his question on the trip to the Weasleys.

As they marched up the hill, Fred and George were discussing Percy and his strange behavior over the summer, hoping against hope that he wouldn't turn out to be another head boy, like their eldest brother Charlie.

As the conversation turned to how they were going to buy all their equipment for the next school year, Harry felt awkward, and he noticed Faykan turning slightly red. They both had large amounts of gold stored in Gringotts, and while Harry guessed that either of them would be more than happy to give any amount to the Weasley, Harry knew from how Ron and the Twins acted that they, or their parents, would never accept any charity offered from close friends.

Mrs. Weasley woke them all early the following Wednesday. After a quick breakfast of a half dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their coats and Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the kitchen mantelpiece and peered inside.

"We're running low, Arthur," she sighed. "We'll have to buy some more today... Ah well, guests first! After you, Harry dear!"

Harry stared dumbly as she offered him the flowerpot. Before he could say anything, Faykan stepped forward and took a pinch of the powder inside, "Come on Harry, I'll show you how travel by Floo powder works," he said guiding Harry to step into the fireplace.

"Ok, all you need to do is close your eyes, tuck your arms in at your sides and simply speak clearly the name of your destination, in this case Diagon Alley, then you throw the powder down. Got it?" Harry nodded and Faykan held his hand up and waited. "Diagon Alley." Harry said loudly as Faykan threw the powder at Harry's feet. With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Harry's head and he felt as though he was being sucked down a giant drain.

Moments later, Harry stumbled out of the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron; and almost fell to the floor as his head was still spinning madly. Moments later, the fireplace behind him roared into life again, and Faykan stepped through gracefully.

"Easy enough Harry?" he asked.

"I think I still prefer brooms." Harry responded making Faykan laugh.

"Yeah, it's not my favorite way to travel either." He commented, dusting the soot off himself as the Weasleys poured out of the fireplace one by one.

After making sure they were all present and accounted for, Mrs. Weasley led them into the back courtyard that contained the hidden entrance to Diagon Alley. Tapping the third brick up and second across from the bins with her wand, she opened the archway and guided them all towards the marble building of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. They met the Grangers and Hermione inside, and while Mr. Weasley chatted with Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Mrs. Weasley took Ron, Faykan and Harry down to get money for their supplies.

The vaults were reached by means of small, goblin-driven carts that sped along miniature train tracks through the bank's underground tunnels. Harry enjoyed the breakneck journey down to the Weasleys' vault, but felt dreadful when it was opened. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon. Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag. Before they left, there was a loud bang behind them, and everyone spun to see what it was. As they turned back after seeing that it was just a cart speeding by, they noticed that there were some more silver sickles and three additional gold galleons that Mrs. Weasley seemed to have missed, even though they were in the middle of the vault, "That's odd, I was sure that we didn't have that much money," she commented, but still scooped the rest into her bag.

Harry saw Faykan's face glowing slightly, and knew exactly what he had done for the family that had treated them like two of their own. He still felt bad when they reached his vault. He tried to block the contents from view as he hastily shoved handfuls of gold coins into a leather bag. When they reached Faykan's vault however, there was no hiding the fact that he was very wealthy; he simply refused to look at anyone as he piled Galleons into his bag.

Peering around from outside the vault to look at a few of the objects on the back shelves, Harry noticed a spherical shaped object wrapped in a black cloth, a large sword in a jeweled scabbard, a red leather bound book, and what seemed like several glowing jewels and trinkets that shinned with inner lights. Faykan pulled a small journal sized book off the shelf and then left, letting the goblin close the door behind them.

The entire journey back up Faykan refused to look at any of the Weasleys, clearly embarrassed that he was far better off then them, not that anyone commented on the subject. Harry felt similar, but he knew that Faykan must have felt extra miserable because he could have made their lives easier without making even the slightest dent in his own funds, not that the Weasleys would allow him to.

Back outside on the marble steps, they all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill. Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to a secondhand robe shop. Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Grangers off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," said Mrs. Weasley, setting off with Ginny. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" she shouted at the twins' retreating backs.

Harry, Ron, Faykan, and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold in Harry's pocket seemed to scream to him to be spent, so he bought the four of them large ice creams, which they all slurped happily as they wandered the alley, stopping to look in several windows here and there. Faykan seemed to still be sulking about Gringotts until Harry nudged him painfully in the ribs and sent him a look that said 'pull yourself together, you did what you could'. The boy seemed to cheer up slightly, but Harry could tell he wasn't going to let this thing go easily.

After an hour of wandering the shops, purchasing the things they would need for their second year at Hogwarts, the four Gryffindors headed for Flourish and Blotts. They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw to their surprise a large crowd jostling out side the doors, trying to get in. The reason for this was proclaimed on a large banner across the upper windows:

 _'_ _GILDEROY LOCKHART_

 _will be signing copies of his autobiography_

 _MAGICAL ME_

 _today 12:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M._ _'_

"We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed. "I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!" Faykan looked like he wanted nothing to do with the man, but thankfully he held his peace.

They squeezed inside, dragging Faykan along as he started to make an excuse to wait outside for them all. A long line wound around and right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart sat, signing his books. They each grabbed a copy of _'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2'_ and sneaked up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys were standing with Mr. and Mrs. Granger.

"Oh, there you four are, good," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"

Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes, while his pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair. Harry thought it was rather a bit much of a show for him, but it was nothing compared to his best friend's reaction.

Faykan looked like he was ready to burst out laughing at Lockhart, while a short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.

"Out of the way, there," he snarled at Faykan, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet…" but he never got to finish as Faykan snapped at him, shoving the man back.

"Big deal!" he yelled, rubbing his foot where the photographer had roughly stepped on it.

Gilderoy Lockhart heard the commotion. He looked up, first seeing Faykan and then his eyes slid across the faces nearest, finally locking onto Harry. He stared for several moments, and then he leapt to his feet and positively shouted, "It can't be, Harry Potter?"

The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm and pulled him to the front, positioning them both for the photographer several times, who nearly went berserk at the opportunity to take Harry's picture. Faykan finally pried Harry away from Lockhart's grip, looking ready to melt the next person to look him in the eyes. The photographer foolishly tried to steal Harry back for one more picture, but Faykan had had enough: He shoved the short photographer back roughly and the man yelped as his camera glowed white hot and clattered to the floor.

Lockhart seemed oblivious to what was happening directly in front of him, and he addressed the crowd of people in the bookstore.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time! When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography, which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge."

The crowd applauded again. "He had no idea," Lockhart continued, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September; I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

The crowd cheered and clapped and Harry found himself being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, he managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where Ginny was standing next to her new cauldron.

Harry could tell that Faykan was still seething under his calm demeanor at the lunacy of the entire situation that had just happened.

"Bet you just _loved_ that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice Harry had no trouble recognizing. He straightened up and found himself face to face with Draco Malfoy, who was grinning madly. "Famous Harry Potter can't even go into a bookshop without making a scene." He teased as he made his way through the crowd toward them

By the time Draco reached them, he had already broken out into good natured chuckles, which cause the rest of them to start laughing as well. They were about to exit the store together when Mr. Weasley called to them, and at the same time, a tall blond man that could only be Lucius Malfoy arrived right behind his son, sneering down at the Weasleys and Harry.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he drawled, looking from Ron to Ginny, "let's, see. Red hair, vacant expressions, second hand book… you must be the Weasleys." He said coldly, picking up one of Ginny's books out of her cauldron and inspecting it like a piece of rubbish.

Harry noticed that Draco was purposely looking away with what he could only guess as shame creeping behind his own expressionless mask. As Mr. Weasley sidled through the crowd toward them, Lucius turned his attention to him. "Ah Weasley senior," he drawled.

"Lucius Malfoy." Mr. Weasley retorted shortly, trying to herd the children out of the bookstore and away from the other Pureblood.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," continued Mr. Malfoy casually. "All those raids... I hope they're paying you overtime? But judging from this…" he added, holding up Ginny's beat up second hand book.

"Hello again, Mr. Malfoy," Faykan suddenly piped up, distracting the older wizard as he turned to address the young boy. "Ah, Mr. Undol how are you this afternoon." He said in an oddly pleasant voice, so opposed to the coldness he had shown to the Weasleys. "I've been better," Faykan responded. "Would it be possible for you to return that book back so we may leave this overly… gaudy… place sir?" he asked, shooting an angry glace back towards Lockhart. Mr. Malfoy simply nodded and shoved the book back into Ginny's cauldron without so much as a glance in her direction, and left with Draco trailing behind him immediately afterward.

Harry, Faykan, the Grangers, and the Weasleys left not too soon after, as at that moment Lockhart was overheard in the back saying that the incident with Faykan and the photographer was staged as a publicity stunt, and Faykan suddenly looked like he wanted nothing more than to reduce the entire shop and everyone in it to ashes at the man's words. They made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron quite hastily, Faykan being dragged by both Fred and George as he struggled violently in their grips to get back to the bookstore to make good on his threats on Lockhart's life.

 **Potential Spoilers ahead, You have been warned!**

 _As was hinted in the note at the beginning, this chapter was more or less untouched, as it serves as a valuable transition from book to book, and launching into the next year's challenges and excitement. still, I felt there was gold here from my first write that needed to be touched up slightly, and emphasized more, such as Fay's initial hostile dislike of Lockhart, as well as the fact that both boys were highly uncomfortable with their wealth in the face of the Weasley's poverty. but all in all, Gringotts is as it will always be, a cluster of normalcy within the wizarding world, wherein characters have little impact to the events that occur from the wider world around them... at least for now.. I hoped that you enjoyed, and I look forward to the 16th where I post this story again. ~F_


	15. Y2-C2: Flight to Hogwarts

_Major forgiveness requested regarding the lateness of this chapter. My computer had had a fatal hardware failure a week ago, and I only just got it back from the company for repairs this afternoon (Hurray for extended warrenties). Still, without further adu, here is the chapter that ought to have been posted yesterday._

 **Chapter Two**

 **Flight to Hogwarts**

The few days remaining of summer after the trip to Diagon Alley were incredibly tense at the Burrow, chiefly due to Faykan. Anyone mentioning Lockhart being the new Defense teacher, even in passing, would be sent an angry glare from the boy, and one time small objects were thrown across the room by his magic after the twins attempted a prank that involved changing Fay's normally black hair into the same golden blond of the new Professor.

Harry was hoping that his best friend would finally be able to relax when they reached the train station, but at the same time he wasn't sure what madness might occur as the proximity to Lockhart drew closer.

On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a supremely sumptuous dinner that included all of Harry's favorite foods, and ending with a mouthwatering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour.

Harry caught Fay pointing out the superb style that the twins had with their display loudly to Mrs. Weasley, which was in turn his retaliation for the earlier prank they had played on him. The pair of them had a long moment of extreme embarrassment while their mother gushed about what good boys they really were in spite of their joking natures, before it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

It seemed to take an extremely long time for everyone to get started the next morning. Despite them all getting out of bed near dawn, the shear amount of things to do had them dashing about till the very last minute before they had to leave. Mrs. Weasley was in a towering temper, people kept constantly colliding with each other on the stairs, many of them half dressed with bits of breakfast in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly fell and broke his neck tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the Weasley's car, a Ford Anglia model.

The only person who was immune to the chaos appeared to be Faykan, who had had the foresight to pack the night before, leaving only the things he would need that morning out.

Harry personally had no idea how the nine people, seven trunks, two owls, and a rat were going to fit into the very small car. Faykan had sent his raven, Roac, to fly ahead to Hogwarts the night before saying that his familiar hated confined spaces. Harry had assumed, wrongly of course, that the car was completely non magical.

Mr. Weasley just gave Harry a wink as he opened the trunk, revealing that it had been magically expanded so that the luggage fit easily inside. After they had all piled into the car, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the front with Ginny, while Harry, Faykan, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy were all sitting comfortable in the back side by side, Mrs. Weasley glanced around at the interior of the car. "Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they. I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"

They finally got to King's Cross at a quarter to eleven, as people kept stopping them from leaving fully and needing to go back to the Burrow to retrieve forgotten items, and they almost dashed across the street into the station. Mrs. Weasley sent Percy into the illusionary barrier between platforms nice and ten first, followed by Mr. Weasley, Fred and George. "I'll take Ginny and you three come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told the three second year boys, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye they were gone.

Harry and Ron attempted to pass the barrier together, but they crashed headlong into a seemingly solid wall right where the barrier was supposed to be. Thankfully Faykan had warned them to look casual, so they hadn't run at full speed, which had prevented their carts from rebounding heavily against the sealed barrier. A few people looked over at the heard the small crash, but lost interest as there was very little damage done. "Why can't we get through?" Harry hissed to Ron. Faykan ran his hands over the barrier, muttering some spell in his strange language that neither of the other Gryffindor boys could understand.

Finally, Faykan had to give up, turned to face his friends and shrugged in defeat. "We're going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don't understand why the gateway's sealed itself." Harry looked worriedly to a clock on the wall. It read two minutes past eleven; they had missed the train. "It's gone," said Ron, sounding stunned. "The train's left, how are we going to get to Hogwarts?"

"If the barrier is sealed, how are your parents going to get back through to us?" Harry asked Ron worry evident of his face. "Oh, they'd just apparate; you know, disappear and reappear to where they want. The only reason the use stuff like Floo powder and the car is because we can't apparate yet."

Faykan's eyes widened, "Harry, Ron, the car, we can wait there for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley!"

"Better yet, we can fly to Hogwarts ourselves!" Ron countered, started to get excited himself.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The three boys made their way out of the station through the crowds of muggles, buffered on either side by the press of people. They turned down the side road where the Ford Anglia sat waiting, and Ron unlocked it with a series of taps from his wand. Faykan shrunk their trunks and pocketed them, while Harry placed Hedwig and Scabbers in the back seat.

Finally all three boys piled into the front, Harry in the middle with Ron driving. "Check that no one's watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand. Harry watched Faykan stick his head out of the window, and he finally declared that the way was clear. Ron pushed a tiny, silver button on the dashboard, and they, their familiars, and the car vanished from sight. Harry could still feel the seat as it vibrated, hear the engine, but he could see nothing around him. It was slightly discomforting.

"Let's go," the voice of Ron said to Harry's right. The car lifted off, and they went soaring into the sky. Before they made it into the cloud cover, there was a popping noise and the car, with everything in it, reappeared suddenly. Ron pounded the button, muttering about how the booster was faulty, and after a few seconds they re-disappeared. After they made it into the clouds, the invisibility booster shorted again, but it made no difference to the three boys, so they left the button alone. Staring at the solid mass of grey clouds surrounding them Harry finally asked, "Now what?"

"Well, we need to head north until we find the train," Faykan replied, and Ron pushed the accelerator, shooting them forward as he aligned the car to the dashboard compass. After a short while, they dipped below the clouds to find the Hogwarts Express making its way along the ground like a scarlet snake. "Well, all we've got to worry about now are airplanes," said Ron. The three of the broke out into fits of laughter, and for a while none of them could stop.

Many hours later, after the enjoyment of flying to Hogwarts had abated, as the car quickly turn out to be very hot, and all three boys were sweating profusely, even after removing their sweaters. "Can't be much father, can it?" Ron finally said, his voice cracking with thirst; they hadn't thought to bring anything to drink. "Why couldn't we get onto the platform?" Harry finally asked. "I have an idea, but…" Faykan began, but at that moment the engine had begun to whine. "It's probably just tired," said Ron. "It's never been this far before"

The three boys ignored the ever increasing whining from the car as the sky grew darker. Faykan crawled into the backseat, unshrunk their trunks one at a time, and pulled out a set of robes for each of them, each of them taking a turn driving while the others got dressed in the back seat. Faykan finally reshrunk the last trunk and returned them to his robe pocket.

Finally a familiar sight greeted them as they descended below the clouds; the castle of Hogwarts loomed before them, high turrets looking like spikes rising into the sky. Unfortunately the car began to shudder and was losing speed, "Come on," Ron said cajolingly, shaking the steering wheel a bit, "we're nearly there, come on…" As they glided over the black lake, the engine finally gave out with a loud clunk and splutter. "Oh, no…" Ron said. The nose of the car dropped. They were falling, gathering speed, heading straight for the solid castle wall. Ron screamed, twisting the steering wheel around; they missed the dark stone wall by inches as the car turned in a giant arc, soaring over the greenhouses, the vegetable patch, and finally over the black lawns, all the while losing altitude.

Ron released the steering wheel and whipped out his wand, attempting to command the car to halt with various whacks from his wand, when Harry bellowed for him to avoid a quickly upcoming tree, but far too late for Ron to turn the car. With an earsplitting bang of metal on wood, they crashed headlong into the limbs of the tree.

Harry looked up from where he had hit the dashboard, now sporting a golf ball sized lump on his head, while Faykan was bleeding profusely from his now broken nose. Ron let out a low, despairing moan as he held up his broken wand, the two pieces of wood held together barely by a thin string of unicorn hair. Faykan quickly moved to open his door and jump out, just as something smashed into his door with the force of a bull, knocking him into Harry and splattering more blood over the three boys.

Harry looked down at Faykan, who appeared to have been knocked unconscious from the force of the blow, and was now bleeding from several deep cuts on his face and arms. "What happened?" Harry asked when Ron gasped, and they looked out the cracked windshield to see a branch as thick as a python collide into it, buckling the front of the car slightly. The tree they were stuck in was flailing madly with its limbs, attacking the car viciously. Harry and Ron screamed as the branches started to pound fiercely onto all sides of the car, shattering windows and denting the metal.

"We're done for!" Ron moaned as the ceiling sagged, but suddenly the floor of the car was vibrating; the engine had restarted. "Reverse!" Harry yelled, and the car shot backward; falling out of the tree as it attempted to crush them; they could hear its roots creaking as it almost ripped itself up, lashing out at them as they finally sped out of reach.

"That," panted Ron, "was close. Well done, car…"

The car, however, had reached the end of its tether. With two sharp clunks, the doors flew open and Harry felt his seat tip sideways: Next thing he knew he was sprawled on the damp ground with Faykan's body draped on top of him. Hedwig's cage flew through the air and burst open; she rose out of it with an angry screech and sped off toward the castle without a backward look. Then, dented, scratched, and steaming, the car rumbled off into the darkness, its rear lights blazing angrily, as Ron yelled after it.

"Can you believe our luck?" said Ron miserably, bending down to pick up Scabbers. "Of all the trees we could've hit, we had to get one that hits back."

"Come on," said Harry wearily, hefting Faykan, who was still unconscious, "we'd better get up to the school."

It wasn't at all the triumphant arrival Harry had pictured. Stiff, cold, and bruised, they seized both of Faykan's arms began half dragging, half carrying him up the grassy slope, toward the great oak front doors.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus Snape was in a foul mood. Not only were Potter, Weasley, and Undol all missing from the train, but rumor was that they were last seen flying an enchanted car towards Hogwarts, no doubt hoping to make a grand entrance amidst their cheering housemates.

Severus waited in a shadowy nook of the entrance all, pondering how he would best punish the three boys if they had been in his own house, to suggest to the Headmaster naturally, the extremely unlikely idea of expulsion aside. Potter was far too important to Dumbledore to be expelled, and Undol was a wild card to be watched, and obviously they couldn't expel Weasley and not the others too, as it would look far too suspicious. Personally, Severus would have had the boys in detention every single free hour of the school year for the idiocy they had showed, but sadly it was not for him to decide.

When the three boys finally entered the castle, Severus knew something had clearly gone wrong. Potter and Weasley were bruised, cut and bleeding, and they both were supporting Undol, who was unmistakably unconscious with a face matted in blood. Forgoing his wish to punish them for the time being, Severus hurried out of the shadows toward the boys and took Undol's weight himself, able to support the child better than two twelve year olds, ignoring the gasps of shock that Potter and Weasley gave as he erupted from the shadows.

"Follow me," he said coldly, and together they hurried up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was still at the feast, so Severus decided to heal the boys as best he could without her. Luckily their injuries weren't severe, and after a simple handful _episkey_ and several _scourgify_ spells, all three boys looked good as new, and Severus finally cast _renervate_ on Undol, bringing him back to consciousness. Groaning from the sudden awakening, Undol turned slightly and opened his eyes to find Severus bending over him, giving him a final examination to be absolutely positive that he was injury free.

"Where am I?" he asked, squinting slightly as his eyes adjusted to the wand light that Severus was running over him.

"In the Hospital wing, Mr. Undol." Severus replied slowly, letting the boy soak in the information. When the boy finally sat up in the bed Severus had placed him in, the Potions Master moved to face the three boys, glaring down at them. Potter and Weasley were staring at their feet, perfectly aware of how deep they were in this mess.

"So," Severus said softly, "the train isn't good enough for the famous Harry Potter and his faithful sidekicks Undol and Weasley. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we, boys?" Undol started to respond, but Severus cut him off, demanding to know what had happened to the car. They looked at him stunned, as if he had read their minds. Severus pulled the copy of the Evening Prophet and showing them the headline: _Flying Ford Anglia Mystifies Muggles._ He read the article to them aloud, finally looking up at their horrified faces as he finished. "You were seen," Severus hissed at them, "by no less than seven Muggles."

Severus then left them to stew in their fear as he fetched Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey, just in case there were any injuries he missed. When he had returned with them both in tow, none of the boys had moved. They seemed to have been frozen in fear of what was going to become of them.

Madam Pomfrey examined the three boys quickly, and after healing a few minor injuries that Severus had missed, mainly on Undol's arms and back, she left to return to the feast. Professor McGonagall finally stood to look at the three boys.

"Sit," she commanded, and both Potter and Weasley seated themselves quickly into chairs next to Undol's bed.

"Explain," she said, and the three boys launched into their story of how they were prevented from passing the barrier in King's Cross, decided that taking the car was their only option, and flew the entire distance to Hogwarts, finally crash landing into the Whomping Willow, which was the cause of their injuries.

"Why didn't you send us a letter by owl? I believe you have an owl?" Professor McGonagall said coldly to Potter when they had finished.

"We panicked," Undol said sullenly.

"That," said Professor McGonagall, "is obvious."

There was a knock on the hospital door and Severus opened it, revealing the Headmaster. Albus strode into the room, and all three boys froze again. Albus was looking unusually grave, and after a long silence, and he finally said, "Please explain why you did this." All three boys flinched at the disappointment in his voice, or at least appeared to flinch; Severus wasn't sure about Undol's sincerity.

Severus watched as they repeated their story in detail for the Headmaster, and Weasley finally said that they would collect their things, assuming that they were going to be expelled. Albus assured him that they weren't going to be expelled today, as Severus knew would happen, and Albus said that he was going to write their families. ' _A lot of good that will do_ ,' Severus thought. With that, the Headmaster left, motioning for Severus to follow.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

After Professor McGonagall sentenced them to a detention each, as thankfully Harry managed to persuade her to not dock points from Gryffindor by stating that school hadn't officially started when they took the car, she left them with a plate of sandwiches and a jug of pumpkin juice that she summoned from the kitchens. They all ate as many as they could, as the plate kept refilling itself, and finally rose to head to Gryffindor Tower, walking through the silent castle and up the stairs to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password?" she said as they approached.

"Err…" said Harry.

He then realized that they had not received the new password, but thankfully Hermione appeared, dashing around a corner toward them.

"There you are! Where have you been? The most ridiculous rumors; someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flying car."

"Well, we haven't been expelled," Harry assured her.

"You're not telling me you did fly here?" said Hermione, sounding almost as severe as Professor McGonagall.

"Skip the lecture," said Ron impatiently, "and tell us the new password."

"It's 'wattlebird,'" said Hermione impatiently, "but that's not the point…"

But whatever the point was, the three boys never heard, because when the Fat Lady's portrait opened, there was a sudden storm of clapping. The whole of Gryffindor House was still awake, and were packed into the common room waiting for Harry, Ron and Faykan to arrive. Arms reached through the portrait hole and pulled the boys inside, leaving Hermione behind to race after them.

People were congratulating them for the inspired entrance they had made, and both Fred and George were jealous that they hadn't been invited to come with them. They were about to be swarmed by the rest of their house, when Faykan staggered, still weak from the amount of blood he had lost, despite the blood replenishment potions Professor Snape had given him. Harry and Ron used this as their excuse to escape up to their dormitories.

They hurried up the stairs, right to the top, and at last reached the door of their old dormitory, which now had a sign on it saying ' _Second Years_ '. They entered the familiar, circular room, with its six four-posters hung with red velvet and its high, narrow windows. Faykan returned their trunks from his pocket, and finally collapsed onto his bed, falling asleep immediately.

Harry was about to get into bed himself, when the dormitory door flew open and in came the other second year Gryffindor boys, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Neville Longbottom. They spent the next twenty minutes retelling their story to their dorm mates, and finally were allowed to go to bed.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The enchanted sky of the Great Hall was a dull, cloudy gray as Draco Malfoy sat down for breakfast. He was terrified for his friends in Gryffindor when he hadn't seen them at the start of term feast, as he had heard the wildest rumors the night before; about Harry, Ron and Faykan being expelled for crashing a flying car into the Whomping Willow. When he saw his friends entering the Hall, his heart gave a relieving leap; they hadn't been expelled, probably.

The three Gryffindor boys sat down near Hermione at the Gryffindor table, and Draco was about to go ask them what happened, when the swirl of mail owls appeared, and Draco saw the Weasley family owl plunge into a milk jug near Ron. From the other side of the room, Draco could easily see the bright red envelope of a Howler. Longbottom said something to Ron, who looked white as a sheet as he slowly tore open the letter. The roar of Ron's mother's voice shook the Hall, causing dust to fall from the ceiling.

"RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR! I AM ABSOLUTLY DISGUSTED! YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE!"

Mrs. Weasley's yells, magnified a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table, and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. People throughout the hall were swiveling around to see who had received the Howler, and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his head could be seen.

"WHEN WE RECEIVED THE LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU, HARRY AND FAYKAN COULD ALL HAVE DIED! YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, AND ITS ENTIRLY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WELL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!"

The ringing in Draco's ears finally subsided, while the red envelope burst into flames as Ron dropped it to the table. A few people laughed, namely Nott, but gradually the usual babble of talk broke out again, all thoughts of the Howler forgotten.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione left the castle together, crossed the vegetable patch, and made for the greenhouses for double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. At least the Howler had done one good thing: Hermione seemed to think they had now been punished enough and was being perfectly friendly again. They arrived to find the rest of the class awaiting Professor Sprout. Moments later, she came striding into view across the lawn, accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry noticed that Faykan tensed immediately at the sight of the man, and put a hand on his shoulder, ready to restrain the smaller boy if he tried to lash out at the Defense Professor. Lockhart was immaculate in sweeping robes of turquoise, his golden hair shining under a perfectly positioned hat that matched his robes.

"Oh, hello there," he called, beaming around at the assembled students, as though he hadn't known they would be there, "just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to doctor a Whomping Willow! But I don't want you running away with the idea that I'm better at Herbology than she is! I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels..."

Harry heard Faykan mutter, "A Whomping Willow? The things these wizard will come up with…"

"Greenhouse three today, chaps!" said Professor Sprout loudly just then, looking distinctly disgruntled, and not at all her usual cheerful self.

The amassed students muttered excitedly about what new interesting plants they were going to work with while Professor Sprout unlocked the greenhouse. Harry was about to drag Faykan inside, when Lockhart's hand shot out.

"Harry!" he said casually, flashing another near-blinding smile, "I've wanted a word, you don't mind if he's a couple minutes late, do you, Professor Sprout?"

Clearly she did mind, but Lockhart attempted to close the door in her face, only to be stopped as Faykan put his foot in the doorway.

"Professor Sprout may not mind, but I do," Faykan said bitterly, leveling an angry glare as he forced the door back open and started to push Harry inside, but the grinning Professor wasn't going to give up that easily.

"I'm certain I could have just a few moments of Harry's time." He said, trying to grip Harry's arm and pull him back. Faykan glared murderously as Lockhart dragged Harry away, talking nonstop.

By the time Harry finally got back to the greenhouse, Professor Sprout was telling the students that they were to be repotting Mandrakes that day. After explaining how they were to do it, she set them all to work in groups of five, and the four Gryffindors were joined by a curly haired Hufflepuff boy that Harry had never spoken to before.

"Justin Finch-Fletchley," he said brightly, shaking Harry by the hand. "Know who you are, of course, the famous Harry Potter... You're Hermione Granger and you're Faykan Undol, always the top two students in everything, except History of Magic" he continued, turning to each of them in turn and ignoring Faykan's complaint of 'Binns' incorrect information', "and Ron Weasley. Wasn't that your flying car?"

The Hufflepuff boy continued speaking for several minutes, commenting on how brave and wonderful he thought Lockhart was, which caused Faykan to break the metal trowel he was holding. As he magically repaired the tool, Justin started talking about himself, mentioning that his mother wanted him to attend a prestigious muggle school, but that he persuaded her with Lockhart's books to allow him to attend Hogwarts, until they had to start the repotting and he finally fell silent, mainly becaus they had to wear earmuffs to prevent the screaming Mandrakes from knocking them out.

The Gryffindor's next class was Transfiguration, and Ron was having a very hard time working with his broken wand. When Harry and Faykan commented that he should mail home for a new one, Ron scoffed and said he didn't want another Howler. During lunch, Harry read on their schedules something that he knew wasn't going to end well; their next class was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

After they finished eating, the four Gryffindors went outside to the courtyard and Hermione sat to read her ' _Voyages with Vampires_ 'book. Harry, Ron and Faykan discussed Quidditch, until Harry felt that he was being closely watched. Looking up, he saw a very small, mousy haired Gryffindor first year boy holding a muggle camera. The moment Harry looked at him, the boy went bright red.

"All right, Harry? I'm, I'm Colin Creevey," he said breathlessly, taking a tentative step forward. "I'm in Gryffindor, too. D'you think… would it be all right if… can I have a picture?" he said, raising the camera hopefully.

"A picture?" Harry repeated blankly.

"So I can prove I've met you," said Colin eagerly, edging further forward. "I know all about you. Everyone's told me. About how you survived when You-Know-Who tried to kill you and how he disappeared and everything and how you've still got a lightning scar on your forehead," his eyes raked Harry's hairline as he said that, "and a boy in my dormitory said if I develop the film in the right potion, the pictures'll move."

Colin drew a great shuddering breath of excitement and said, "It's amazing here, isn't it? I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Hogwarts. My dad's a milkman, he couldn't believe it either. So I'm taking loads of pictures to send home to him. And it'd be really good if I had one of you," he looked imploringly at Harry, "maybe your friend could take it and I could stand next to you? And then, could you sign it?"

Faykan's eyes narrowed at Colin, just as a loud, scathing voice echoed around the courtyard, "Signed photos? You're giving out signed photos, Potter?"

Theodore Nott stopped right behind Colin, flanked, as he always was at Hogwarts, by his large and thuggish cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Everyone line up!" Nott roared to the crowd. "Harry Potter's giving out signed photos!"

"No, he's not," Faykan growled angrily, fist clenching. "Shut up, Nott." Harry saw that Faykan was itching to draw his wand and curse Nott into oblivion.

"You're just jealous," piped up Colin, whose entire body was about as thick as Crabbe's neck.

"Jealous?" said Nott, who didn't need to shout anymore: half the courtyard was listening in. "Of what? I don't want a foul scar right across my head, thanks. I don't think getting your head cut open makes you that special, myself."

Crabbe and Goyle were sniggering stupidly.

"Eat slugs, Nott," said Ron angrily. Crabbe stopped laughing and started rubbing his knuckles in a menacing way.

"Be careful, Weasley," sneered Nott. "You don't want to start any trouble or your Mommy'll have to come and take you away from school." He put on a shrill, piercing voice. "If you put another toe out of line'…"

A group of Slytherin fifth years nearby laughed loudly at this. "Weasley would like a signed photo, Potter," smirked Nott. "It'd be worth more than his family's whole house…"

Ron whipped out his Spellotaped wand, but Hermione shut ' _Voyages with Vampires_ ' with a snap and whispered, "Look out!"

"What's all this, what's all this?" Gilderoy Lockhart was striding toward them, his turquoise robes swirling behind him. "Who's giving out signed photos?"

All Harry saw was a blur of motion as Faykan whipped his wand out and yelled, " _arrna en' me'urramya mallen sen_!" Black storm clouds surrounded Nott, Lockhart, and Colin and thunder boomed as bolts of lightning flew around them. Dragging Harry by the arm, Faykan dashed back to the castle, Ron and Hermione in tow.

Faykan finally released Harry's arm when they were inside the Defense classroom, and immediately took the farthest seat from the front, Harry and Ron sitting next to him. Hermione took the chair in front of Faykan, just as the rest of the class filed in. Minutes later, Lockhart entered, slightly damp and his hair amiss, but he plastered a smile on his face as he turned to the class.

When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up Neville Longbottom's copy of ' _Travels with Trolls_ ', and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.

"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award, but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

He waited for a few people to laugh; a few people smiled weakly, Faykan coughed loudly, and Harry swore he could hear the word 'git' mixed in.

"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books, well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in…"

When he had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said,

"You have thirty minutes, starting, now!"

Harry looked down at his paper and read:

 _1\. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

 _2\. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

 _3\. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?_

On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:

 _54\. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?_

Lockhart looked at Faykan, who was the only person not writing on the quiz paper "Um, excuse me Mr.…" he paused, unsure of Faykan's name.

"Undol," Faykan finished for him, looking both bored and irritated.

"Undol, are you finished with the quiz already?"

Faykan scoffed, "Absolutely, seeing how I'm not going to do it at all."

The entire class stopped at and looked at Faykan. Hermione just kept writing on the quiz, while Lockhart looked completely at a loss of how to handle the situation.

"Uh… why won't you do the quiz Mr. Undol?" he asked stupidly.

"Well, there is nothing on this quiz that has anything to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, so why should I waste my time answering questions about you?"

The entire class was watching this exchange now, the quiz completely forgotten.

Lockhart seemed very agitated by Faykan's contemptuous glare, but masked it immediately with a wide smile, "Well, Mr. Undol, the quiz is to see how well you've read my books, which is important for me to see how you can handle my teaching style. You do not have to take the quiz if you feel you don't have anything to learn from it, but you may find yourself sorely unprepared.

Faykan just shrugged, and leaned back in his seat, while the sniggers of Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas could be heard, who were sitting in front. After the quiz, on which Hermione won Gryffindor ten points, Lockhart finally decided to try and teach something.

"Well, down to business," he said, bending down behind his desk and lifting a large, covered cage onto it. Harry was watching as Faykan glanced once at the cage then rolled his eyes dramatically, which sent Harry and Ron into a small fit of giggles.

"Now, be warned," said Lockhart, "It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard-kind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm. It might provoke them!"

As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover.

"Yes," he said dramatically, "Freshly caught Cornish pixies…"

Faykan couldn't take any more, and burst out into a fit of laughter that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror, and the class followed suit.

Smiling at Faykan, Lockhart said "Right, then, if you find them so amusing, let's see what you make of them!" and he opened the cage.

It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them seized Neville by the ears and lifted him into the air. Several shot straight back through the front window as they were blasted by Faykan's quickly drawn wand, showering the floor with broken glass. But the rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, upended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window; within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Neville was swinging from the iron chandelier in the ceiling.

"Come on now, round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouted.

He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"

It had absolutely no effect and one of the pixies seized his wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, narrowly avoiding being squashed by Neville, who fell a second later as the chandelier gave way.

The bell rang and there was a mad rush toward the exit. In the relative calm that followed, Lockhart straightened up, caught sight of Harry, Faykan, Ron, and Hermione, who were almost at the door, and said, "Well, I'll ask you four to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." He swept past them and shut the door quickly behind him.

"Can you believe him?" roared Ron as one of the remaining pixies bit him painfully on the ear.

"He just wants to give us some hands on experience," said Hermione, immobilizing two pixies at once with a clever Freezing Charm and stuffing them back into their cage.

"Hands on?" said Harry, who was trying to grab a pixie dancing out of reach with its tongue out. "Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing."

"Rubbish," said Hermione. "You've read his books; look at all those amazing things he's done…"

"He says he's done," Faykan retorted loudly.

 _arrna en' me'urramya mallen sen: storm of thunder encircle them_

 **Potential Spoilers ahead, you have been warned!**

 _So, once again my sincerest apologies for the lateness of the chapter, no one plans for computer failure. Small bits of extension here and there as needed for the plot to feel more alive, as I felt that from the Burrow to the station, and again from the station to Hogwarts felt a bit on the too canon side of things, which I know many would argue is the least of my concerns regarding how true to canon the story its, trust me there is a reason that things play out this way, and the change in the pacing is coming, primarily starting in PoA year._

 _once again changed Severus' perspective to relate more of what he already knows regarding the undol family, but to be fair this chapter was more or less left alone, as it was a transition, other than making it more fluid and smooth._

 _More in due time. ~F_


	16. Y2-C3: Voices in the Shadows

_Many thanks to those who review, and on with the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Three**

 **Voices in the Shadows**

Harry dodged out of sight the next few days whenever he saw Lockhart coming down a corridor, Faykan usually hot on his heels. Unfortunately, it was much harder for Harry to avoid Colin Creevey, who must have memorized Harry's schedule. However, Faykan wasn't very fond of the first year boy, so whenever he appeared to be pestering Harry (all the time), Faykan would throw him a glare that generally sent the small boy running away as fast as his legs could carry him with his generic farewell of "See you Harry."

Hedwig was still angry with Harry about the disastrous car journey and Ron's wand was still malfunctioning, surpassing itself on Friday morning by shooting out of Ron's hand in Charms and hitting tiny old Professor Flitwick squarely between the eyes, creating a large, throbbing green boil where it had struck. So with one thing and another, Harry was quite glad to reach the weekend. He, Ron, Faykan and Hermione were planning to visit Hagrid on Saturday morning.

Harry, however, was shook awake several hours earlier than he would have liked by Oliver Wood, Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Wood said something about a new training program, coercing Harry to get up, and he pulled on his Quidditch robes grudgingly. As Harry wrote a note for Ron, telling him where he'd gone he noticed that Faykan bed was empty, but he paid no mind, as Faykan was prone to drifting around the school at night, tonight the reason was probably to let off steam from Lockhart's most recent class. Lockhart had dragged both him and Harry to the front of the class to reenact scenes from his books, much to the amusement of the rest of the second year Gryffindors.

Harry sighed lightly as he shouldered his Nimbus Two Thousand and left the dormitory, wishing that he could just crawl back into bed. Just as he reached the portrait hole, Harry heard a clatter behind him and turned to see Colin Creevey dash down the stairs, his camera swinging madly around his neck.

"All right, Harry?" he asked, as he usually did six or seven time a day.

"Hello, Colin," Harry said back dryly. He was about to leave again when Colin stopped in front of him holding the camera. "Harry, could I please have just one photo to send home, even if you don't sign it, please?" he begged.

"Not right now Colin, I'm in a hurry, Quidditch practice." Harry replied as he finally stepped through the portrait hole.

"Oh, wow! Wait for me! I've never watched a Quidditch game before!"

Colin scrambled through the hole after him.

"It'll be really boring," Harry said quickly, but Colin ignored him, his face shining with excitement.

"You were the youngest House player in a hundred years, weren't you, Harry? Weren't you?" said Colin, trotting alongside him. "You must be brilliant. I've never flown. Is it easy? Is that your own broom? Is that the best one there is?"

Harry was certain that the boy was going to drive him mad when he saw Colin dash ahead of him and bend down. When the boy turned back, Harry almost laughed out loud as he saw Faykan the fox in his arms. "Harry look at this, I saw this fox inside Gryffindor Tower before, isn't it amazing looking…" Colin kept right on talking, carrying Faykan and following Harry out of the castle, absently petting Faykan's fur rather harder than Harry thought could have been pleasant. Thankfully Faykan didn't try to bite Colin but simply resigned himself to being clung to like a stuffed animal.

When Harry finally reached the changing rooms, Colin dashed off to the stadium to get a seat to watch, and dropped Faykan by accident in his mad dash across the Quidditch field. Harry held the door open for his friend, and once they were inside Faykan changed back into human form, scowling.

"Did I ever mention how much I hate being petted by that kid…?" Faykan said while Harry laughed. "I honestly can't believe how early he wakes up, by the time I come back before dawn that kid is already in the common room either reading or playing with that stupid camera."

Faykan left the changing room when the rest of the Gryffindor team arrived, and when they finally got onto the pitch, he was circling it in the air on his custom broomstick while Ron and Hermione sat in the stands with Colin nearby. The team practiced for a short time, Colin snapping picture after picture of them, until Faykan finally flew down and took the camera from the boy, remaining there to make sure he didn't use it anymore that morning.

It was about this time that Wood noticed the Slytherin team walking onto the field, brooms in their hands.

"I don't believe it!" Wood hissed in outrage. "I booked the field for today! We'll see about this!"

Wood shot toward the ground, landing rather harder than he meant to in his anger, staggering slightly as he dismounted. Harry, Fred, and George followed.

"Flint!" Wood bellowed at the Slytherin Captain. "This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off now!"

Marcus Flint was even larger than Wood. He had a look of trollish cunning on his face as he replied, "Plenty of room for all of us, Wood."

Angelina, Alicia, and Katie had come over, too. There were no girls on the Slytherin team, who stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the Gryffindors, leering. Wood argued with Flint about how he had booked the field, but Flint merely showed him a note signed by Professor Snape.

' _I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker.'_

When questioned about their new seeker, Draco stepped forward through the large Slytherin boys. Harry sent Draco a curt nod, showing his own support of him making the team, even if it meant they would be competing against him. Flint then made a show of how Draco's father had sent the entire team Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. As Ron, Hermione, Faykan and Colin made their way to the field; Flint continued to taunt the Gryffindor team's inferior brooms. Hermione piped up that at least the people on the Gryffindor team got there by pure talent. Draco sent her a hurt look while Flint spat, "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood."

There was a pair of loud bangs and both Ron and Flint was lying on the ground, moaning in pain, while Faykan had his wand out, eyes shining in pure malice, paralyzing the rest of the Slytherin team.

"Ron! Ron! Are you all right?" squealed Hermione.

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead he gave an almighty belch and several slugs dribbled out of his mouth onto his lap. He had clearly tried to curse Flint as well, but his Spellotaped wand had backfired.

Faykan helped Harry carry Ron, and with Hermione in tow, they headed to Hagrid's hut while leaving the rest of the Gryffindor team to deal with the problem of the Slytherins. Colin started to follow, but Faykan shoved him out of the way angrily. They were within twenty feet of Hagrid's house when the front door opened, but it wasn't Hagrid who emerged. Gilderoy Lockhart, wearing robes of palest mauve today, came striding out.

"Quick, behind here," Harry hissed, he and Faykan dragging Ron behind a nearby bush while Hermione followed, somewhat reluctantly.

"It's a simple matter if you know what you're doing!" Lockhart was saying loudly to Hagrid. "If you need help, you know where I am! I'll let you have a copy of my book. I'm surprised you haven't already got one, I'll sign one tonight and send it over. Well, goodbye!" And he strode away toward the castle.

After Lockhart was out of sight, Harry knocked on Hagrid's door while Faykan and Hermione carried Ron to the doorstep. They seated Ron in a chair while Hagrid placed a large copper basin in front of him, explaining that there wasn't anything they could do but wait for the curse to stop. Harry and Faykan then explained what had happened to at the Quidditch pitch, and Hagrid comforted Hermione, telling her not to think about it, and praising her about how she was better and more clever then any student in the school, and was able to perform any spell ever invented.

About an hour later Harry's stomach rumbled loudly. It was nearly lunchtime and as Harry had only had one bite of treacle fudge since dawn at Hagrid's hut, he was keen to go back to school to eat. They said goodbye to Hagrid and walked back up to the castle, Ron hiccoughing occasionally, but only bringing up two very small slugs.

They had barely set foot in the cool entrance hall when a voice rang out, "There you are." Professor McGonagall was walking toward them, looking stern. "You three will do your detentions this evening."

"What're we doing, Professor?" said Ron, nervously suppressing a burp.

"You will be polishing the silver in the trophy room with Mr. Filch," said Professor McGonagall, "And no magic, Weasley, elbow grease." Ron gulped. Argus Filch, the caretaker, was loathed by every student in the school.

"Undol, you will be assisting Professor Snape harvesting potion ingredients in the Forbidden Forest. And you, Potter, will be helping Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail," said Professor McGonagall.

"Oh no, Professor, can't I go and do the trophy room or the forest, too?" said Harry desperately.

"Certainly not," said Professor McGonagall, raising her eyebrows. "Professor Lockhart requested you particularly. Eight o'clock sharp, you three."

Harry and Ron complained loudly about their detentions as the four Gryffindors made their way into the Great Hall, Hermione giving them a well-you-did-break-school-rules sort of expression. Harry noticed that Faykan was silent the entire time, and when he turned to look at him, he saw that his friend was actually smiling, "What are you grinning at?" he asked rather hotly.

"Well, better Snape than Lockhart, Harry," he said and burst up into a fit of laughter, which made Harry slug him hard in the shoulder.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The night was dark and clear when Severus Snape took Undol out into the forest to gather plants for his Potion classes. They trudged on in silence for the first half hour, collecting knotgrass and the occasional belladonna they came past, and Severus was starting to enjoy the silence of the forest when he heard Undol call him over. "Professor, come look at this."

Severus hurried over, wondering what the Gryffindor could have found, when he saw Undol shining his wand at a long trail of spiders making their way deep into the forest. Severus raised his eyebrows, the actions of the spiders was strange enough, but the fact remained that they were here to collect herbs, not study the behavior of the wildlife of the grounds. "Whatever those spiders are up to is not of your concern Undol, now come along. There is a small pond nearby I want to check for asphodel." The boy looked slightly sorrowful to leave the mystery of the spiders alone, but dutifully followed behind Severus.

When they reached the pond, Severus set Undol to pulling the long royal staffs from the ground and piling them in the container he had brought, which gave him time to finally regard the boy he had watched for almost a year now. Undol had grown slightly, still small for his age, but catching up quickly. His hair was still kept at shoulder length, just as Severus remembered the boy's father keeping it, and they shared the same piercing blue eyes. It was oddly reminiscent of how Potter reflected his father's features, apart for his mothers emerald eyes, which Severus had always found enchanting.

"Professor Snape?" Severus blinked, he was so busy recalling the face of Lily Evans that he didn't notice Undol come back to dump another pile of asphodel in his lap. Severus looked at the boy, waiting for him to speak again, but the boy shook his head, and turned to go harvest more plants. Severus, acting on impulse, grabbed the boys arm and pulled him to face him. Rolling up the boy's sleeve, he exposed the grey tattoos that covered the boy's arms. They shined in the moonlight filtering through the trees, looking almost black against the boy's skin. "What, Mr. Undol are these?" Severus asked, looking at the boys face for a reaction.

If the boy was surprised by Severus' sudden questioning, Undol didn't show it, "They're the markings of my family, Sir. The Undol line was very close ages ago to the mighty Istari that roamed the earth roughly five thousand years ago." Severus raised an eyebrow, "And your family can prove this with records from that far back?" he asked releasing the boy's arm. "Indeed, we have the records of many of the pureblood families in our vaults and at our ancestral home, dating well back into the Third Age of the earth." Undol turned to leave again, but Severus stopped him again, saying that their hour was up and it was time to return to the castle.

Severus watched the boy walk ahead of him, wondering at what the boy had revealed to him. 'Strange,' he thought, 'that this boy could be so mature and knowledgeable at the age of twelve. The Istari of the Third Age? No other records date _that_ far back, they were all uniformly halted somewhere in the Middle Ages.'

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

When Harry finally returned to Gryffindor Tower after four long hours of enduring Lockhart's prattle, he found Faykan waiting for him in the deserted common room. He grinned as Harry come through the portrait hole, "back already, I thought Lockhart would have you there until tomorrow easily." Harry laughed sarcastically, and they went up to their dormitory, while Faykan told him about his time in the forest, especially about the odd behavior of the spiders he had seen. Harry remembered suddenly the chilling voice he had heard at the end of his detention and told Faykan about it. Faykan eyes sparkled as Harry described how it had spoke about killing and death, but he didn't comment.

They climbed into bed and Harry waited for Ron to return. Another half hour rolled by until Ron entered the dormitory, complaining about the trophies that Filch had him polishing fourteen times because he had spit a slug on it by accident. Harry told him about the voice and what Faykan had seen in the forest, and at the mention of spiders Ron shuddered.

"And Lockhart said he couldn't hear it?" Ron said curiously. Harry could see him frowning in the moonlight. "Do you think he was lying? But I don't get it; even someone invisible would've had to open the door."

"I know," said Harry, lying back in his four-poster and staring at the canopy above him. "I don't get it either."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco found Hermione and Ron in the library one wet and cold Saturday morning in late October. He had wandered in to work on a History of Magic essay, when he saw Hermione stacking what looked like twenty books onto the desk she and Ron were sharing. Walking over, Draco saw that Hermione was currently pouring over _'Abridged History of the Third Age_ , _'_ while Ron worked on his Potions assignment. "Hello, Draco," Hermione said without looking up from her book.

"Hey, what are you researching there Hermione?" Draco responded, sitting across from her and pulling out his essay.

She didn't respond at first, focusing on a line in her book. Finally, after a moment or two she clapped her hands in excitement "I've figured it out," she said joyously.

"Figured out what?" Draco said, confused.

"Hermione's trying to find out what language Faykan spoke when he cast a spell at Lockhart and Nott weeks ago," Ron said dryly, "I think she's obsessed…"

Hermione shot him a look and finally turned to Draco, "Haven't you noticed that Faykan usually casts his spell silently, except is rare occasions, and then it's mostly in that strange airy language that no one can understand?" Draco nodded; he had noticed that Faykan seemed rather adept at silent spells. "I knew it had to be something exceptionally rare, as I mentioned it to Professor Flitwick and even he wasn't sure, so I've been looking for old and dead languages, and I found that the extinct high elves, who according to legend lived on the earth well over two thousand years ago before disappearing, spoke a language know as Sindaren, which according to these descriptions is the closest thing I can find that fits they tones and structure that Faykan speaks when he casts."

"Did you know," Draco added casually, "that according to the legend, the last high elven female married a great king of men, and they became the first ancestors of the pureblood lines." Draco suddenly remembered the paper that Faykan had left for him to read when he left Malfoy Manor that summer. "I just remembered, Faykan knows this legend, I think…"

Draco then explained everything that Faykan had done during the month of July, how he had been working night and day on a family record of the early middle ages. "I think," Hermione said after Draco had finished, "that he might know far more about the truth behind this legend than the wizarding community remembers."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry and Faykan were trudging down a deserted corridor, soaked through from the pouring rain outside. Harry had been up bright and early that morning at Quidditch practice while Faykan had watched from the stands. As they were returning to Gryffindor Tower, they passed by Nearly Headless Nick staring out of a window, muttering under his breath about not fulfilling requirements.

"Hello, Nick," Harry said absently, his mind elsewhere.

The Gryffindor ghost responded his greetings, and commented on how Harry looked rather troubled, which was very true. Harry had heard about the performance of the Slytherin's Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones from Fred and George, who had spied on some of their training sessions. They reported that the Slytherin team was no more than seven green blurs, shooting through the air like missiles. When Faykan commented that Nick looked just as preoccupied as Harry, the ghost launched into a rant about not being allowed to participate in the headless hunt, a special society of headless ghosts.

Harry was about to make up an excuse for them to leave Nick and return to Gryffindor Tower, when a high pitched mewling sounded at his ankles. Both he and Faykan looked down to see Mrs. Norris' lamp like eyes gazing at them. "You'd better get out of here, boys," said Nick quickly. "Filch isn't in a good mood; he's got the flu and some third years accidentally plastered frog brains all over the ceiling in dungeon five. He's been cleaning all morning, and if he sees you dripping mud all over the place…"

"Right," Harry said, backing away from Mrs. Norris as Faykan changed into his animagus form. Nick widened his eyes as he watched the boy change into a rather soaked fox, looking oddly tiny with his fur plastered to his body from the water coating him. Faykan had changed just in time, as Argus Filch burst suddenly through a tapestry to Harry's right, wheezing and looking wildly about for the rule-breaker. There was a thick tartan scarf bound around his head, and his nose was unusually purple.

"Filth!" he shouted his jowls aquiver, his eyes popping alarmingly as he pointed at the muddy puddle that had dripped from Harry's Quidditch robes. "Mess and muck everywhere! I've had enough of it, I tell you! Follow me, Potter!"

So Harry waved a gloomy good-bye to Nearly Headless Nick and Faykan the fox as he followed Filch back downstairs, adding to the number of muddy footprints on the floor.

Harry had never been inside Filch's office before; it was a place most students avoided. The room was dingy and windowless, lit by a single oil lamp dangling from the low ceiling. A faint smell of fried fish lingered about the place. Wooden filing cabinets stood around the walls; from their labels, Harry could see that they contained details of every pupil Filch had ever punished. Filch grabbed a quill from a pot on his desk and began shuffling around looking for parchment, muttering about the time he would have to spend cleaning the mess Harry had made.

Just as Filch was about to declare his punishment for Harry, there was a deafening bang and a crash just above them. Filch roared and ran from the room, with Mrs. Norris hot on his heels. Thinking that he should probably wait for Filch to come back, Harry sank into a moth eaten chair next to the desk. There was only one thing on it apart from his half completed form: a large, glossy, purple envelope with silver lettering on the front. With a quick glance at the door to check that Filch wasn't on his way back, Harry picked up the envelope and read: ' _Kwikspell A Correspondence Course in Beginners' Magic._ '

Harry was about to flick open the letter, intrigued, when shuffling footsteps outside told him Filch was coming back. Harry threw the envelope back onto the desk just as the door opened. Filch was looking furious. "That vanishing cabinet was extremely valuable!" he was saying to Mrs. Norris. "I do hope we catch whoever thought it would be a good idea to demolish it." His eyes fell on Harry and then darted to the Kwikspell envelope, which, Harry realized too late, was lying two feet away from where it had started. Filch's pasty face went brick red and he began sputtering angrily, demanding if Harry had read the letter, declaring that it wasn't his, and finally throwing Harry out of his office without a punishment.

Amazed at his luck, Harry sped out of the office, up the corridor, and back upstairs. To escape from Filch's office without punishment was probably some kind of school record.

"Harry! Harry! Did it work?"

Faykan was running down the corridor with Nick gliding behind, "Nick suggested that I should blow up that cabinet to try and distract Filch."

"Was that you?" said Harry gratefully. "Yeah, it worked, I didn't even get detention. Thanks!"

Faykan beamed and they continued their way to Gryffindor Tower, Nick gliding beside them. Harry noticed that he was still holding the rejection letter from the Headless Hunt. Harry asked if there was anything he could do for Nick about the Hunt, and the ghost brightened, explaining that he was having his five hundredth deathday party that Halloween in the dungeons, and he asked if Harry and Faykan would attend, if only for a small time.

"Oh, of course we'll come," Harry said, elbowing Faykan in the ribs before he could complain. Nick joyously glided away, and Harry led the way to the common room while Faykan protested loudly about how boring going to the deathday party would be.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was excited to attend the deathday party, while both Ron and Faykan complained about missing the Halloween feast, which rumor had that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for entertainment. But Harry wouldn't go back on his promise and at seven the four Gryffindors walked straight past the very inviting doorway that led to the packed Great Hall, and down the steps towards the dungeons.

The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nick's party had been lined with candles, too, though the effect was far from cheerful: These were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces. The temperature dropped with every step they took. As Harry shivered and drew his robes tightly around him, he heard what sounded like a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard.

"Is that supposed to be music?" Ron whispered. They turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes.

"My dear friends," he said mournfully. "Welcome, welcome . . . so pleased you could come..."

It was an incredible sight. The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a raised, black draped platform. A chandelier overhead blazed midnight-blue with a thousand more black candles. Their breath rose in a mist before them; it was like stepping into a freezer. Harry suggested that they look around, at least to warm up their feet. They passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead as they made their way carefully around the edge of the dance floor.

"Oh, no," said Hermione, stopping abruptly. "Turn back, turn back, I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle…"

"Who?" said Harry as they backtracked quickly, but it was too late. A squat ghost of a girl had glided over. She had the glummest face Harry had ever seen, half hidden behind lank hair and thick, pearly spectacles. She looked at each of them sulkily, and when her eyes settled on Faykan, who was bright red at this point, she brightened. "Oh, it's the fox boy." She said to him, and Faykan mumbled something that sounded like 'hello' as he turned walk away from her. While Myrtle followed and continued to talk the ever increasingly agitated Faykan, Hermione explained to Ron and Harry that she haunted the girl's bathroom on the first floor. As she mentioned that she was incredibly sensitive, they all jumped as a piercing wail. They whipped around in time to see Myrtle burst into anguished sobs and flee from the dungeon, leaving a shocked and still very red Faykan standing next to Nick.

"What happened to Myrtle?" Hermione said as they joined Faykan and Nick. Faykan didn't look like he wanted to answer, and Nick spoke for him, "Miss Myrtle got a trifle upset when I insisted that she give young Mr. Undol a bit of space. She was making quite a scene, and I felt that Mr. Undol was becoming rather embarrassed at her advances."

Faykan's faced glowed the rest of the time they spent at the deathday party. Harry finally indulged his silent requests to leave when the Headless Hunt arrived and started to disrupt the festivities with their games of headless polo.

They backed toward the door, nodding and beaming at anyone who looked at them, and a minute later were hurrying back up the passageway full of black candles.

"Pudding might not be finished yet," said Ron hopefully, leading the way toward the steps to the entrance hall. Hermione was pestering Faykan about what Myrtle had been saying to him, but Faykan was refusing to talk about it. "I just want to put tonight behind us," he said, his face burning.

And then Harry heard it.

 _"... Rip ... tear ... kill ..."_

It was the same voice, the same cold, murderous voice he had heard in Lockhart's office.

He stumbled to a halt, clutching at the stone wall, listening with all his might, looking around, squinting up and down the dimly lit passageway.

"Harry, what're you…?"

"It's that voice again, shut up a minute…"

 _"... So hungry ... for so long ..."_

"Listen!" said Harry urgently, and Faykan, Ron and Hermione froze, watching him.

 _"... Kill ... time to kill ..."_

The voice was growing fainter. Harry was sure it was moving away, moving upward. A mixture of fear and excitement gripped him as he stared at the dark ceiling. "This way," he shouted, and he began to run, up the stairs, into the entrance hall. It was no good hoping to hear anything here, the babble of talk from the Halloween feast was echoing out of the Great Hall. Harry sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, Ron his friends clattering behind him.

"Harry, what're we…"

Harry hushed them, straining his ears. Distantly, from the floor above, and growing fainter still, he heard the voice: _"... I smell blood... I SMELL BLOOD!"_

His stomach lurched.

"It's going to kill someone!" he shouted, and ignoring the three Gryffindor's bewildered faces, he ran up the next flight of steps three at a time, trying to listen over his own pounding footsteps.

Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Faykan, Ron and Hermione racing behind him, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage.

"Harry, what was that all about?" said Ron, wiping sweat off his face. "I couldn't hear anything..."

But Hermione gave a sudden gasp, pointing down the corridor.

"Look!"

Something was shining on the wall ahead. They approached slowly, squinting through the darkness. Foot high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches:

' _The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware.'_

"What's that thing hanging underneath?" said Ron, a slight quiver in his voice.

As they edged nearer, Faykan almost slipped, there was a large puddle of water on the floor; Ron and Hermione grabbed him, and they inched toward the message, eyes fixed on a dark shadow beneath it. All three of them realized what it was at once, and leapt backward with a splash... Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.

For a few seconds, they didn't move. Then Ron said, "Let's get out of here."

"Shouldn't we try and help…" Harry began awkwardly.

"Trust me," said Faykan. "We don't want to be found here."

But it was too late as a rumble from below told them that the feast had just ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood soon was alive with the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.

The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Faykan, Ron, and Hermione stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight.

Then someone shouted through the quiet.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

It was Theodore Nott. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his eyes alive as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus arrived with Dumbledore just in time to see Argus Filch holding Potter up by the collar of his robes, shaking him with fury as the students looked on in horror.

"You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll…"

"Argus!" called the Headmaster, freezing the caretaker and causing him to release his hold on Potter. The boy scrambled back to his friends, who were all huddled against the opposite wall, as Dumbledore swept over to inspect the body of Mrs. Norris. Gently he removed the cat's stiffened form and motioned for Severus and Professor McGonagall to follow him, "Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch, and motioned toward Potter and his friends, "and you four as well."

Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.

"My office is nearest, Headmaster; just upstairs… please feel free…"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.

The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart bounded after Albus looking excited and important, followed by Severus and McGonagall, with Potter's group bringing up the rear.

As they entered Lockhart's darkened office there was a flurry of movement across the walls; several of Lockhart's ridiculous pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back as Dumbledore lay Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. Potter, Weasley, Granger and Undol exchanged tense looks and sank into chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching.

Lockhart annoyingly hovered around, offering ludicrous suggestions about made up curses and other nonsense that he wrote in his fictional books that Severus could see was interfering with Albus' concentration.

"She's not dead, Argus," the Headmaster said softly, when he finally straightened. "She has been Petrified, but how I cannot say…"

"Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to Potter.

"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly, and Severus agreed with him to a point. No _normal_ second year could have managed it, but Severus believed, no he knew that Undol was not anything near ordinary. Filch continued to argue that Potter was the guilty party with Albus, and Severus decided that it was time to vouch his opinion, "If I might speak, Headmaster," he said as he stepped into the candlelight, "Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time." He glanced at Undol, conveying his suspicion of the boy to Albus. "But," he continued, "we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the upstairs corridor and not at the Halloween feast?"

Potter, Weasley and Granger started explaining about Nick's yearly deathday party that he held at the same time as the feast. Strangely Undol remained silent during their explanation, embarrassment evident on his face. "But why were you in that corridor after, and not joining the feast after you left?" Potter gave a weak excuse of them being tired, and Weasley tried to back it up that they weren't hungry, while Undol continued to be silent.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," Albus said firmly, after he had probed the minds of Potter, Weasley, and Granger. Severus knew that try as Dumbledore might, Undol was far too aware of their abilities to be caught off guard for legilimency. Filch looked furious, still thinking that they were discussing Potter.

"My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," Albus said patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep…"

"Excuse me," Severus interjected icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."

After a very awkward pause the Headmaster turned to Potter and the other three Gryffindors, "You may go," he said simply.

After the four students left, Albus sent McGonagall and Lockhart to take Mrs. Norris to the Hospital Wing and Filch to go try and get some rest. When they were out of sight, Severus launched into his suspicions, "Headmaster, I feel that it is possible, if not probable that Mr. Undol is capable of causing the petrifaction of Mrs. Norris. It may be advisable to…" Albus cut him off mid sentence.

"I do not believe, Severus that any of those four Gryffindors are responsible for what happened tonight. Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger are certainly not capable of causing it, and I do not believe that it would be in Mr. Undol's intention to do such a dark spell to simply petrify Mrs. Norris."

"Then," Severus said, "what do you believe is the reason Albus?"

Albus looked very grave, "I think, that whoever opened the Chamber fifty years ago has sent a successor, or has returned to continue attacking the students of this school…"

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned!**

 _Main source of changes here were in the scene with Faykan and SEverus out in the forest, solidifying the fact that Faykan knows much of his family, and indeed the wizarding world's history, far more than any other Pureblood. However, due to the need for a realistic revelation of the main plot, most of it was left fairly canon. Yes, i know many people still have grief regarding the heavy use of canon in this book, but they missunderstand how powerful Faykan actually is. he cannot foresee events before they happen, so unless it is something he was already privy to, he wouldn't have cause to act, and it is not in his nature to do more than is needed to nudge the others toward a solution, due to the mandate of the Valar. Granted, in time that will change as we progress further into the story, but as it stands they are very reaction-oriented to events around then, rather than preparing for and changing events from the canon. i hope that clears up some of the spoken and unspoken missunderstandings thusfar. More next time everyone!_

 _~F_


	17. Y2-C4: Moaning Myrtle

_Chapter is a day early this week, both to make up for it being late last time, and because I will be busy traveling home for Christmas tomorrow, which would have prevented me from posting in a timely manner. Much thanks to those who have reviewed since last time. For those as of yet unaware, there is a poll on my profile in relation to my Star Wars/Harry Potter fic, go I would urge you to check that out if your interested in that, both the poll and the story. with those small announcements said, enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Four**

 **Moaning Myrtle**

For the next few days, all the school could talk about was the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like 'breathing loudly' and 'looking happy.'

The attack had also had an effect on Faykan and Hermione. Faykan had once again taken to wandering the corridors at night, disguised in his animagus form, while Hermione was reading more than she had ever done before. Nor could Harry, Faykan or Ron get much response from her when they asked what she was up to, and not until the following Wednesday did they find out. Faykan had been held back in Potions, where Snape had made him stay behind to scrape tubeworms off the desks and Harry had waited for him. After a hurried lunch, the two boys went upstairs to meet Ron in the library, and saw Justin Finch-Fletchley, the Hufflepuff boy from Herbology, coming toward them. Harry had just opened his mouth to say hello when Justin caught sight of them, turned abruptly, and sped off in the opposite direction.

They found Ron at the back of the library, measuring his History of Magic homework. Professor Binns had asked for a three foot long composition on 'The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.'

"I don't believe it, I'm still eight inches short," said Ron furiously, letting go of his parchment, which sprang back into a roll. "And Hermione's done four feet seven inches and her writing's tiny."

"Where is she?" asked Harry, grabbing the tape measure and unrolling his own homework.

"Somewhere over there," said Ron, pointing along the shelves, "looking for another book. I think she's trying to read the whole library before Christmas."

Harry told Ron about Justin Finch-Fletchley running away from him.

"Dunno why you care. I thought he was a bit of an idiot," said Faykan, while Ron scribbled away, making his writing as large as possible. "All that rubbish about Lockhart being so great."

Hermione emerged from between the bookshelves. She looked irritable, but at last seemed ready to talk to them.

"All the copies of Hogwarts, A History have been taken out," she said, sitting down next to Faykan; across from Harry and Ron. "And there's a two week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."

"Why do you want it?" said Harry.

"The same reason everyone else wants it," said Hermione, "to read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."

"What's that?" said Harry quickly; just as he noticed Faykan get his traditional distant look that he always wore when he was working something out.

"That's just it. I can't remember," said Hermione, biting her lip. "And I can't find the story anywhere else…"

"Hermione, let me read your composition," said Ron desperately, checking his watch.

"No, I won't," said Hermione, suddenly severe. "You've had ten days to finish it."

"I only need another two inches, come on…"

The bell rang. Ron and Hermione led the way to History of Magic, bickering.

History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor.

He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand. Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed. "Miss… err…?"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione in a clear voice.

Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville Longbottom's elbow slipped off his desk.

Professor Binns blinked.

"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk snapping and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers…"

He stuttered to a halt. Faykan's hand was now waving in the air.

"Mr. Undol?"

Everyone's eyes darted from Faykan to Professor Binns. He had never gotten a student's name right in years…

"Don't legends always have a basis in fact, Sir?"

Professor Binns was looking at him in such amazement, Harry was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead. "Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Faykan as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale…"

But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns' every word. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. Harry could tell he was completely thrown by such an unusual show of interest.

"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see... the Chamber of Secrets ...

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago, the precise date is uncertain, by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

The ghost continued to explain that at first the founders had worked together, but eventually a rift grew between Slytherin and the other three, because of Slytherin's desire to be more 'selective' about who they allowed to attend Hogwarts, namely purebloods. Eventually there was a confrontation between Slytherin and Gryffindor and Slytherin left the school.

Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing.

"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns' classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.

"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course," he said. "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."

Hermione's hand was back in the air.

"Sir, what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice.

The class exchanged nervous looks.

"I tell you, the thing does not exist," said Professor Binns, shuffling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."

Several students began voice their opinions about why the chamber could not have been found, but Binns had had enough.

"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built as much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"

And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual torpor. "I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony," Ron told the others as they fought their way through the teeming corridors at the end of the lesson to drop off their bags before dinner. "But I never knew he started all this pureblood stuff. I wouldn't be in his house if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd have got the train straight back home..."

Hermione nodded fervently, but Harry didn't say anything. His stomach had just dropped unpleasantly, remembering where the hat had tried to place Faykan last year. He noticed that Faykan didn't say anything either, but just stared off into space.

As they were shunted along in the throng, Colin Creevey went past. "Hiya, Harry!"

"Hullo, Colin," said Harry automatically.

"Harry, Harry, a boy in my class has been saying you're…" But Colin was so small he couldn't fight against the tide of people bearing him toward the Great Hall; they heard him squeak, "See you, Harry!" and he was gone.

"What's a boy in his class saying about you?" Hermione wondered.

"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect," said Harry, his stomach dropping another inch or so as he suddenly remembered the way Justin Finch-Fletchley had run away from him and  
Faykan at lunchtime.

"People here'll believe anything," said Ron in disgust.

The crowd thinned and they were able to climb the next staircase without difficulty.

"D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked Hermione.

"I don't know," she said, frowning. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs. Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be, well, human."

As she spoke, they turned a corner and found themselves at the end of the very corridor where the attack had happened. They stopped and looked. The scene was just as it had been that night, except that there was no stiff cat hanging from the torch bracket, and an empty chair stood against the wall bearing the message ' _The Chamber of_

 _Secrets has been Opened_.'

"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered.

They looked at each other. The corridor was deserted. "Can't hurt to have a poke around," said Faykan, and Harry dropped his bag and got to his hands and knees so that he could crawl along, searching for clues.

"Scorch marks!" he said, "Here, and here."

"Come and look at this!" said Hermione. "This is funny..."

Harry got up and crossed to the window next to the message on the wall. Hermione was pointing at the topmost pane, where around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside.

"It's just like the spiders I saw in the forest during my detention with Snape," Faykan commented.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" said Hermione wonderingly.

"No," said Harry, "have you, Ron? Ron?"

He looked over his shoulder. Ron was standing well back and seemed to be fighting the impulse to run.

"What's up?" said Harry.

"I. Don't. Like. Spiders," said Ron tensely.

"I never knew that," said Hermione, looking at Ron in surprise. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times...

"I don't mind them dead," said Ron, who was carefully looking anywhere but at the window. "I just don't like the way they move..."

Hermione giggled.

"It's not funny," said Ron, fiercely. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my, my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and... "

He broke off, shuddering. Hermione was obviously still trying not to laugh. Feeling they had better get off the subject, Harry said, "Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from?"

"Someone's mopped it up."

"It was about here," said Ron, recovering himself to walk a few paces past Filch's chair and pointing. "Level with this door." He reached for the brass doorknob but suddenly withdrew his hand as though he'd been burned.

"What's the matter?" said Harry.

"Can't go in there," said Ron gruffly. "That's a girls' toilet."

"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there," said Hermione, standing up and coming over. "That's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on, let's have a look."

"I don't want to go in there," Faykan said abruptly, and Harry, Ron and Hermione turned to look at him. Faykan was shifting nervously, edging slightly away from the bathroom.

"Fay," Harry said concerned, "Are you okay?"

"I really don't want to see _her_ again, if it's alright with you." He replied, a tint of redness starting to creep onto his face.

"Oh come on, there's nothing she can do to you, stop being so scared." Hermione said, grabbing Faykan wrist. And ignoring the large _'OUT of ORDER'_ sign, she opened the door, dragging the protesting Faykan behind her, with Harry and Ron following. It was the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom Harry had ever set foot in. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched and one of them was dangling off its hinges.

Hermione put her fingers to her lips and set off toward the end stall. When she reached it she said, "Hello, Myrtle, how are you?" Harry and Ron went to look, while Faykan glanced at the door and edged toward it, until Harry grabbed his arm to stop him. Moaning Myrtle was floating above the tank of the toilet, picking a spot on her chin.

"This is a girls' bathroom," she said, eyeing Ron, Faykan and Harry suspiciously, finally settling her eyes on Faykan with a small grin. "They're not girls."

"No," Hermione agreed. "I just wanted to show them how err… nice it is in here."

She waved vaguely at the dirty old mirror and the damp floor.

"Ask her if she saw anything," Harry mouthed at Hermione.

"What are you whispering?" said Myrtle, staring at him.

"Nothing," said Harry quickly. "We wanted to ask…"

"I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" said Myrtle, in a voice choked with tears. "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead…"

"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you," said Hermione. "Harry only…"

"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" howled Myrtle. "My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"

"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately," said Hermione quickly, "because a cat was attacked right outside your front door on Halloween."

"Did you see anyone near here that night?" said Harry.

"I wasn't paying attention," said Myrtle dramatically. "Nick upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm… that I'm…"

"Already dead," said Ron helpfully.

Myrtle gave a tragic sob, rose up in the air, turned over, and dived headfirst into the toilet, splashing water all over them and vanishing from sight, although from the direction of her muffled sobs, she had come to rest somewhere in the U-bend.

Harry and Ron stood with their mouths open, but Hermione shrugged wearily and said, "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle... Come on, let's go."

Faykan was out the door quicker than lightning. Harry had barely closed the door on Myrtle's gurgling sobs when a Hermione was laying into Faykan, "So Fay, why does Myrtle terrify you so much?" she said with a suppressed giggle.

Faykan face flushed immediately and he started to try and change the subject, but Hermione persisted until Faykan finally blurted out, "She caught me in there…"

"In there doing what?" Ron said stupidly, and Faykan turned away and coughed, but Harry had a faint idea what he had been doing. "I was wandering down the corridor and I couldn't wait to find a boy's room…" Faykan muttered looking down at his shoes and Ron burst out laughing, earning a sharp poke in the ribs from Hermione.

"It's not funny Ron." Faykan said indignantly, "If you'd been out all night as an animal that has a tiny bladder you would have gone in there too."

"And, she saw you, doing your business," Hermione said slowly, and Faykan nodded. "She came right up through the toilet, scared me half to death, so I transformed and ran for it." Faykan shuddered at the memory, "Now she keeps following me around whenever she sees me, making references and innuendos…"

"I'm sorry Fay," Hermione said, putting a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off, "Can we talk about something else please." He said, and walked off back to the Great Hall.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Ron couldn't stop laughing at Faykan's misfortune throughout dinner, and the entire way back up to the common room. He was so distracted that he kept blotting his Charm's homework, and when he tried to remove the smudges with his wand, he accidentally ignited the parchment. In an effort to put out the flames, he slammed ' _The Standard Book of Spells Grade 2_ ' closed on the parchment. To Harry's surprise, Hermione followed suit.

"Who can it be, though?" she said in a quiet voice, as though continuing a conversation they had just been having. "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggleborns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think," said Ron in mock puzzlement, still trying to stop chucking. "Who do we know who thinks Muggleborns are scum?"

He looked at Hermione. Hermione looked back, unconvinced.

"If you're talking about Nott…"

"Of course I am!" said Ron. "You heard him, `You'll be next, Mudbloods!' come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him."

"Nott, the Heir of Slytherin?" said Faykan skeptically.

"Well," said Hermione cautiously, "I suppose it's possible..."

"But how would we prove it?" said Harry darkly.

"We could have Draco ask him," Faykan suggested, but Ron shot it down, saying that Nott didn't trust Draco because he was too close to them.

"There might be another way," said Hermione slowly, dropping her voice still further with a quick glance across the room at Percy. "Of course, it would be difficult, and dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect…"

"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" said Ron irritably.

"All right," said Hermione coldly. "What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Nott a few questions without him realizing it's us."

"But that's impossible," Harry said as Ron laughed.

"No, it's not," said Hermione. "All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion."

"What's that?" said Ron and Harry together.

"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago…"

"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" muttered Ron.

"It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into three of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Nott would probably tell us anything."

"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me," said Ron, frowning. "What if we were stuck looking like four of the Slytherins forever?"

"It wears off after a while," said Hermione, waving her hand impatiently. "But getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called _Moste Potente Potions_ and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library."

There was only one way to get out a book from the Restricted Section: You needed a signed note of permission from a teacher.

"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really," said Ron, "if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions."

"I think," said Hermione, "that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance..."

"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that," said Ron.

"Want to bet." Faykan said with a sly grin that reminded them all of his animagus form.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

After the disastrous first lesson with the pixies, Professor Lockhart had done nothing more than read to his classes from his books. Faykan had suggested that they stop going completely, Harry and Ron agreed but Hermione wouldn't allow it. Harry was tired of being hauled to the front of the class every lesson for Lockhart's reenactments of his books, but they needed Lockhart in a good mood to trick him into giving them a note to get the potion's book. Finally the bell rang and Lockhart got to his feet.

"Homework, compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf, Signed copies of Magical Me to the author of the best one!"

The class began to leave. Harry returned to the back of the room, where Ron, Faykan and Hermione were waiting. When the rest of the class had filed out, Hermione approached Lockhart's desk with a piece of paper in her hand, the three boys behind her.

"Err… Professor Lockhart?" she stammered. "I wanted to… to get this book out of the library, just for background reading." She held out the piece of paper, her hand shaking slightly. "But the thing is that it's in the Restricted Section of the library, so I need a teacher to sign for it. I'm sure it would help me understand what you say in Gadding with Ghouls about slow-acting venoms."

"Ah, Gadding with Ghouls!" said Lockhart, taking the note from Hermione and smiling widely at her, "Possibly my very favorite book. You enjoyed it?"

While Hermione stroked Lockhart's ego and got the note signed, Harry saw Faykan roll his eyes at the Professor's stupidity and leave the room in disgust. Finally Lockhart scrawled an enormous loopy signature on the note and handed it back to Hermione. Harry and Ron followed her out to find Faykan sitting down the corridor waiting. As they approached, he stood and examined the note Hermione had in her hand. "See," he said to Ron, "Told you it would be easy."

It took twenty minutes for them to retrieve the book, because Madam Pince took an extra long time to studying their note, and then finding the book. Five minutes later, they were barricaded in Moaning Myrtle's out of order bathroom once again.

Hermione had overridden Faykan's objections by pointing out that it was the last place anyone in their right minds would go, so they were guaranteed some privacy. Thankfully Moaning Myrtle was crying noisily in her stall, so they were ignoring her, and she them.

"This is the most complicated potion I've ever seen," said Hermione as they scanned the recipe. "Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass," she murmured, running her finger down the list of ingredients. "Well, they're easy enough, they're in the student store cupboard, we can help ourselves... Oh, look, powdered horn of a bicorn, don't know where we're going to get that, shredded skin of a boomslang. That'll be tricky, too and of course a bit of whomever we want to change into..." Ron got a disgusted look on his face.

Faykan perked up for a moment, "Oh yeah, Ron," Ron turned to him, and threw up his hands as Faykan punched him several times in the chest and arms as hard as he could, "Next time you tease me, you'll find spiders in your bed…" Faykan said icily. Ron grimaced and rubbed his now sore torso.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned!**

 _More or less I left this chapter unchanged, perhaps aside from a few minor grammatical fixes, as it serves a valuable purpose of transition from the horror of Halloween to the Christmas break, much as it did in canon. Still find it hilarious that so few picked up the first time that Binn's knew Faykan by sight, without messing up his name, although with all the hints previously dropped that probably meant little at the time by then. More next time! ~F_


	18. Y2-C5: Parseltongue and Petrification

_Merry Christmas, belatedly, to you all. Many thanks to whomever reviewed thusfar on either this or the original edition of ANP! Enjoy the newest installment! ~F_

 **Chapter Five**

 **Parseltongue and Petrification**

A roar of noise greeted them as they walked out onto the pitch. A great torrent of cheers, coming from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students eager to see a Slytherin defeat, and of course their Gryffindor housemates. Yet on the opposite side of the field, the Slytherins and their supporters were making their noise heard, matching the scarlet and gold half in both intensity and volume.

Madame Hooch, who was refereeing the match, asked the two captains of the Quidditch teams to shake hands. Flint and Wood stepped out of their lines and shook hands slightly harder than necessary, giving each other dirty looks in the process.

"On my whistle," said Madam Hooch. "Three ... two ... one. . .

With a renewed blast of cheers from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Draco flew higher than any of them but Harry, and both Seekers scanned the skies for the Snitch, their eyes squinted almost comically to be able to see better.

"All right there, Harry?" yelled Draco as he shot underneath him to get a better view of the opposite side of the pitch. Harry had no time to reply, because that very moment, a heavy black Bludger came pelting toward him; he narrowly avoided receiving it in the head.

"Close one, Harry!" said one of the Weasley twins, streaking past him with his club in his hand, ready to knock the Bludger back toward a Slytherin player. Draco saw the twin give the Bludger a powerful whack in the direction of Adrian Pucey, but the heavy iron ball changed direction in midair and shot back, headed straight for Harry again. Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and Fred-or-George managed to hit it hard toward Draco. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and carved a path through the air back towards the Gryffindor Seeker.

Harry put on a burst of speed and zoomed toward the other end of the pitch, the Bludger hot on his tail. ' _What is going on_?' Draco thought as he watched in confusion. Bludgers never concentrated on one player like this; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible... The other Weasley twin was waiting for the Bludger at the other end of the pitch as Harry pelted toward him. He ducked as Weasley swung at the Bludger with all his might and knocked it off course.

The three Gryffindor players finally got the attention of their captain to get a timeout. Madam Hooch's whistle rang out and Harry and the twin Weasleys dived for the ground, still trying to avoid the mad Bludger. They huddled on the side of the field, probably talking about the rogue ball. Draco was worried, but he had to keep an icy uncaring demeanor now that he was around Flint, who his father had set to watch out for him, or more accurately to spy on him.

Moments later Madam Hooch resumed the game, just as the rain started falling heavily. On her whistle, Draco kicked hard into the air and heard the telltale whoosh of the rogue Bludger going after Harry once more. Higher and higher the Seekers climbed. Draco watched Harry loop and swoop, spiral, zigzag, roll, and do all sorts of crazy maneuvers to avoid the Bludger. He could hear laughter from the crowd at his antics and a few worried yells, but the rogue Bludger was heavy and couldn't change direction as quickly as Harry could. The Gryffindor began a kind of roller-coaster ride around the edges of the stadium keeping ahead of the speeding ball.

Draco sped after him, "Sure you don't need any help, Harry?" he yelled as his friend was forced to do a stupid kind of twirl in midair to dodge the Bludger, and flee, the black ball trailing a few feet behind him, and then, staring back at Draco in panic, Harry was frozen for an agonizing moment when…

WHAM.

Harry had stayed still a second too long. The Bludger had hit him at last. It had smashed into his elbow, and Draco saw Harry's arm break. Harry swerved out of the way as the Bludger came round for a second attack. Through a haze of rain he dived right at Draco.

"What the…?" he gasped, careening out of Harry's way just in time to avoid the Bludger-turned-missile.

Harry had taken his remaining hand off his broom and made a wild snatch; falling straight onto the ground at the same time. With a splattering thud he hit the mud and rolled off his broom. His arm was hanging at a very strange angle. Draco could see the Snitch clutched in his other hand. Gryffindor had, quite unsurprisingly, won again.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry came around, rain falling on his face, still lying on the field, with someone leaning over him. He saw a the telltale glitter of white teeth.

"Oh, no, not you," he moaned.

"Doesn't know what he's saying," said Lockhart loudly to the anxious crowd of Gryffindors pressing around them. "Not to worry, Harry. I'm about to fix your arm."

"No!" said Harry. "I'll keep it like this, thanks..."

He tried to sit up, but the pain was terrible. He heard a familiar clicking noise nearby, steadily drowning out the angry yells somewhere further away, but growing nearer.

"I don't want a photo of this, Colin," Harry said loudly, straining to hear what was being shouted in the background.

"Lie back, Harry," said Lockhart soothingly. "It's a simple charm I've used countless times…"

"Why can't I just go to the hospital wing?" asked Harry through clenched teeth.

"Stand back," said Lockhart, who was rolling up his jade green sleeves.

"No, don't…" said Harry weakly, but Lockhart was twirling his wand and a second later had directed it straight at Harry's arm. A strange and unpleasant sensation started at Harry's shoulder and spread all the way down to his fingertips. It felt as though his arm was being deflated. He didn't dare look at what was happening. He had shut his eyes, his face turned away from his arm, but his worst fears were realized as the people above him gasped and Colin Creevey began clicking away madly. His arm didn't hurt anymore, nor did it feel remotely like an arm.

"Ah," said Lockhart. "Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is...the bones are no longer broken." He gave a little nervous laugh while the students surrounding him exclaimed in shock at the state of Harry's arm. "That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, just toddle up to the hospital wing, ah, Mr. Undol, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, would you escort him? Madam Pomfrey will be able to, err… tidy you up a bit."

As Harry got to his feet, he felt strangely lopsided. Taking a deep breath he looked down at his right side. What he saw nearly made him pass out again. Poking out of the end of his robes was what looked like a thick, flesh colored rubber glove. He tried to move his fingers, but nothing happened.

Lockhart hadn't mended Harry's bones.

He had removed them.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco caught up to Faykan just as he was leaving the Hospital Wing. "How's Harry doing?" he asked tentatively. Faykan explained how Professor Lockhart had _accidentally_ vanished all the bones in Harry's arm and that he needed to stay overnight while Madam Pomfrey regrew them. The sound of the bewildering Professor's name caused Faykan to give him a look that sent chills down Draco's spine, especially as some of the loose stone started to flake off the nearby walls and the loose window panes rattled.

After a short time Faykan eventually calmed down, and they discussed some other things, such as the Slytherin's teams disappointment at losing the match, and how they blamed Draco for the loss, but Draco didn't particularly care, as it was next to impossible for them to just throw him off the team after his father had bought his position. At the mention of other Slyherins, Faykan took a look to see if any teachers were around, before leaning in close and whispered to Draco "I have some more to ask of you, about Nott…"

Draco was confused. "What about him?"

Taking another secretive look around, Faykan led Draco to an empty classroom. When he had shut the door and made sure that nobody was listening outside, he finally spoke again. "Ron, Hermione and Harry have a suspicion that Nott might be the Heir of Slytherin, I want to ask you if he's been bragging about anything or being extraordinarily sneaky lately?"

Draco shook his head. "No, he's not been acting out of the ordinary that I've seen, but I don't really hang around him and his group very often anymore."

Faykan nodded slowly, "That's what Ron thought when I suggested we have you spy on them for us, which leads to my next question… Draco what are you going to be doing over the Christmas holiday?"

Draco raised an eyebrow, "I was going to stay here at Hogwarts actually. Why?"

Faykan's smile widened, and he began to explain Hermione's scheme with the Polyjuice Potion and how it wouldn't be ready for a month. "So we need the hair of four different Slytherins. Harry and Ron will probably go for Crabbe and Goyle, Hermione would need a girl's, and I was hoping if I could get you to willingly give over some of your hair along with a set of your robes and shoes, We'll get the specific day and time for you later, but for the hour that we're questioning Nott, you need to make sure that you are not anywhere near the Slytherin common room. Oh and well need its password and location," he added, thinking of that at the last second.

"That's quite a devious and highly dangerous plan you Gryffindors have cooked up." Draco said thoughtfully. After considering it for a few seconds, he said, "Alright, I'm in. But if you lot get caught I was stunned and locked in a broom cupboard. Got it?"

"How very Slytherin of you, my dear Draco," Faykan laughed.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry's stay in the hospital wing was, to put it lightly, highly eventful. He was woken in the middle of the night by a strange creature by the name of Dobby, and after some talking, the tiny 'house elf' had admitted to both closing the barrier back before school started and to causing the Bludger to relentlessly pursue Harry during the Quidditch match. The poor thing had said over and over again that he had done both to protect 'Mister Harry Potter', because "very terrible things are happening at Hogwarts!" No matter how much he prodded, Harry could not get the pitiful creature to reveal what kind of things. Every time Dobby got close to hinting at what was to come, he would start to punish himself by trying to beat himself senseless with anything within arm's reach. Finally, the house elf vanished when both Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall brought in the petrified body of Colin Creevey.

Harry was finally released from the Hospital Wing Sunday morning and wandered the castle, looking for Ron, Hermione and Faykan. He finally found them in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Faykan and, to Harry's surprise, Draco were guarding the door, while Ron and Hermione had started work on the potion.

"It's Harry," Faykan explained, closing the door after Harry was allowed in. There was a clunk, a splash, and a gasp from within one of the stalls and he saw Hermione peering around the open door.

"Harry!" she said. "You gave us such a fright! Come in, how's your arm?"

"Fine," said Harry, squeezing into the stall after her. An old cauldron was perched on the toilet, and a crackling from under the rim told Harry they had lit a fire beneath it. Conjuring up portable, waterproof fires was a specialty of Hermione's.

"We'd have gone to visit you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion," Ron explained. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it."

"You mean _you_ decided," called Faykan from the door, but Hermione and Ron ignored him.

Harry recounted the events of the previous night to his friends. Draco and Faykan exchanged a look at the mention of Dobby the house elf.

"The sooner we get a confession out of Nott, the better," snarled Ron. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after the Quidditch match that he took it out on Colin."

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione asked, trying to ignore Ron's accusations.

"This settles it," continued Ron in a triumphant voice. "Nott's father must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's told dear Theo how to do it. It's obvious. I kinda wish this Dobby had told you what kind of monster's in there though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around the school."

"Maybe it can make itself invisible," said Hermione, prodding leeches to the bottom of the cauldron. "Or maybe it can disguise itself, pretend to be a suit of armor or something. I've read about Chameleon Ghouls…"

"You read too much, Hermione," interrupted Ron, pouring dead lacewings on top of the leeches. He crumpled up the empty bag that had contained the lacewings and looked at Harry.

"So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm." He shook his head. "You know what, Harry? If he doesn't stop trying to 'save your life' he's going to kill you."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Three weeks into December, Severus Snape found himself hoodwinked into 'assisting' Lockhart with a dueling club. It had not been a good month for Severus, as only last week someone, he believed it was either Potter or Undol, had thrown a Filibuster's Firework into a cauldron of Swelling Solution, causing the whole lot to explode over the entire classroom. And now he was being forced to work right alongside this _fraud_. Severus was furious to say the least.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" He clapped his hands together, and began in earnest. "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions. For full details, see my published works."

There was a general muttering from the surrounding students. Severus noted that Potter and his gang were in attendance, as far from Lockhart as possible.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," continued Lockhart, flashing a wide smile in Severus' direction. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry. You'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

The Potion Master's upper lip curled as he glared at Lockhart, who simply continued to smile mindlessly at the crowd of students.

Lockhart and Severus turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Severus simply jerked his head irritably. They then raised their wands in front of them, almost like swords.

"As you can see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

Severus bared his teeth, wishing he could 'accidentally' send an Unforgivable or two towards the over-showy professor.

"One... Two… Three!"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent. Severus cried, " _Expelliarmus!_ " There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl unceremoniously into a heap on the floor.

Severus could hear Nott and some of the other Slytherins cheering. Curiously, as he glanced over the crowd, he could see Potter, Weasley and Undol grinning widely. Apparently their mistrust for him was far exceeded by their dislike of Lockhart's idiocy.

Lockhart was unsteadily getting to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!" he said cheerfully, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm… as you see, I've lost my wand… ah, thank you, Miss Brown… yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy, however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see."

Severus glared at him again. Possibly Lockhart finally noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! Let's have a volunteer pair. Uh, Undol, Weasley…"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Severus interjected. "Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Undol up to the hospital wing in a matchbox. How about pairing Mr. Nott with Mr. Undol?" Severus added with a twisted smile.

"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart, gesturing Nott and Undol into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room. "Now, Mr. Undol," said Lockhart. "When Theodore points his wand at you, you do this."

He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. Severus smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, "Whoops… it appears my wand is a little overexcited." Severus moved closer to Nott, bent down, and whispered in his ear, "Undol is a strong caster. Give him your most powerful spells—just nothing illegal." Nott smirked, glaring across at his opponent. Undol grinned back at them, completely ignoring whatever Lockhart was trying to teach him. Severus was looking forward to seeing what Undol could pull off. Nott was probably going to be in a lot of pain very soon, but it wouldn't matter to him, as long as he had an inkling of what sort of magician he had on his hands.

"Scared?" muttered Nott to Undol, so that Lockhart couldn't hear him, but Severus had no problems overhearing the two boys.

"Terrified," said Undol sarcastically out of the corner of his mouth.

"Three… Two… One… Go!" Lockhart shouted just then. " _Diffindo_ ," Nott yelled, slashing his wand towards Undol's chest. He followed up with a pair of stinging hexes, but Undol dodged and deflected each spell without effort. He then retaliated with a bright orange blast from his wand that hit Nott in the stomach, making him double over in pain. Nott recovered quickly, and retaliated with a Blasting Hex, which caught Undol in the shin, but the boy did not go down.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the two battling students, and Severus actually grinned when Undol threw a spell behind him to disarm the foolish Professor once again.

"Stop! Stop!" screamed Lockhart as he scrambled for his fallen wand, but neither boy listened as they continued to throw spells and curses at each other. The air became thick with smoke and fumes as spells went wild, colliding with each other and bouncing around the room. It was a truly remarkable display, and most of the students were wide eyed with awe at the two dueling boys.

Severus could now believe whole heartedly that Undol had fought and beaten the fool of a Professor Quirrell the previous year, as while Severus' impression of the man had been lacking, the babbling, stuttering fiend hadn't been inept with a wand. But this display, with the level of power and control, was completely unexpected from a second year student.

Nott didn't stand a chance if Undol was actually trying to beat him, which Severus could tell with a critical eye was not the case. If anything the boy was just enjoying the back and forth of magic, as well as 'letting' a few spells backfire and hit Lockhart further down the platform from him.

Nott finally raised his wand quickly and angrily bellowed, " _Serpensortia!_ " The end of his wand exploded in a burst of color and smoke. Severus watched as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between the two boys, and raised its head, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Undol," said Severus lazily, enjoying the sight of the boy standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He flourished his newly re-reacquired wand at the snake and there was a loud bang. The snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged and now hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Potter and raised itself again, fangs exposed, and poised to strike.

Severus wasn't sure if he could stop the snake before it bit Potter. Just as he brandished his wand and prepared to get rid of the serpent, Potter opened his mouth as if to speak, but only an odd hissing and sputtering emerged. It seemed to catch the snake off guard, and it turned to a Hufflepuff boy next to Potter. But Potter kept speaking and the snake started to lie down, pacified.

"What do you think you're playing at?" the Hufflepuff shouted at Potter, and the boy turned and stormed out of the hall. Severus stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. He too, was looking at Potter in an amazed way. It seemed there was more in common between Potter and the Dark Lord than anyone had guessed.

Undol and Weasley tugged on Potter's robes and dragged him from the hall amidst mutterings from the other students present. Severus had hoped to expose some of Undol's powers, which he did, to an extent. The boy's dueling skills were more than exceptional and all of his spells had been silent, but apparently Potter was hiding some secret abilities as well. 'Albus will probably want to know about this,' Severus thought.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry didn't have a clue about what was going on, and nobody explained anything until they had dragged him all the way up to the empty Gryffindor common room. Then Ron pushed Harry into an armchair and said, "You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm a _what_?" asked Harry.

Faykan paled, and turning to Ron, he said slowly, "He doesn't know… I completely forgot to tell him." He turned back to Harry as he explained. "That day, at the zoo when you spoke to the boa constrictor, I was going to tell you but Dudley shoved us to the ground. You can speak to snakes Harry, it's an incredibly rare ability."

"This is bad," Ron said faintly.

"What's bad?" asked Harry, starting to feel quite angry. "What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin…"

Ron explained that no one could understand what Harry had said, as it had all sounded like a snake's hissing. Hermione added that it was bad for Harry because Salazar Slytherin was famous for being a Parselmouth. When Hermione commented that it might even be possible for Harry to be a descendant of Slytherin, Harry saw Faykan turn to stare into space, a frown etched on his face.

Harry decided to speak to Justin the next day at Herbology and explain everything, but the class was cancelled due to the snowstorm that arrived in the night. Harry fretted about this next to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, while Ron and Hermione used their time off to play a game of wizard chess and Faykan read through a Herbology book he had borrowed from Neville earlier.

"For heaven's sake, Harry," said Hermione, exasperated, as one of Ron's bishops wrestled her knight off his horse and dragged him off the board. "Go and find Justin if it's so important to you. Just stop fidgeting like that."

Faykan snapped the book shut as Harry stood, and raced after him, catching up to his friend as he exited through the portrait hole. "I'll help you look for him if you'd like," he offered cheerfully. "Perhaps the library would be a good start?"

Justin was not in the library. When Faykan and Harry entered, they saw several Hufflepuffs sitting at the back talking to each other in hushed voices, leaning close together conspiratorially. The two Gryffindors snuck closer, hiding behind a bookshelf in the Invisibility section to listen in.

"So anyway," a stout boy was saying, "I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say, if Potter's marked him down as his next victim, it's best if he keeps a low profile for a while. Of course, Justin's been waiting for something like this to happen ever since he let slip to Potter he was Muggleborn. Justin actually told him he'd been down for Eton. That's not the kind of thing you bandy about with Slytherin's heir on the loose, is it?"

"You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie?" said a girl with blonde pigtails anxiously.

"Hannah," said the stout boy solemnly, "he's a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that's the mark of a Dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself 'Serpent Tongue'." There was some heavy murmuring at this, and Ernie went on, "Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir, Beware. Potter had some sort of run in with Filch. Next thing we know, Filch's cat's attacked. That first year, Creevey, was annoying Potter at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of him while he was lying in the mud. Next thing we know, Creevey's been attacked."

"He always seems so nice, though," said Hannah uncertainly, "and, well, he's the one who made You-Know-Who disappear. He can't be all bad, can he?"

Ernie lowered his voice mysteriously, and the Hufflepuffs bent closer, and Harry edged nearer so that he could catch Ernie's words. "No one knows how he survived that attack from You-Know-Who. I mean to say, he was only a baby when it happened. He should have been blasted into smithereens. Only a really powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that." He dropped his voice more until it was barely more than a whisper, and added, "That's probably why You-Know-Who wanted to kill him in the first place. He didn't want another Dark Lord competing with him. I wonder what other powers Potter's been hiding…"

Harry couldn't take any more. Clearing his throat loudly, he stepped out from behind the bookshelves with Faykan right behind him, wand in hand. If Harry hadn't been feeling so angry, he would have found the sight that greeted him quite funny: Every one of the Hufflepuffs looked as though they had been petrified by the sight of him, and the color was draining out of Ernie's face.

"Hello," Faykan said after glancing at Harry, "we're looking for Justin Finch-Fletchley."

The Hufflepuffs' worst fears had clearly been confirmed. They all looked fearfully at Ernie.

"What do you want with him?" asked Ernie in a quavering voice, watching Harry.

"We wanted to talk to him about the events of the Dueling Club," said Faykan.

Ernie bit his pale bloodless lips and then, taking a deep breath, said, "We were all there. We saw what happened."

"Then you noticed that after I spoke to it, the snake backed off?" said Harry, fighting to restrain his anger.

"All I saw," said Ernie stubbornly, though he was trembling as he spoke, "was you speaking Parseltongue and chasing the snake toward Justin."

"Harry didn't chase it at him!" Faykan said, his voice shaking with anger. "It didn't even touch him!"

"It was a very near miss," said Ernie. "And in case you're getting ideas," he added hastily, "I might tell you that you can trace my family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks and my blood's as pure as anyone's, so…"

"I don't care what sort of blood you've got!" said Harry fiercely. "Why would I want to attack Muggleborns?"

"I've heard you hate those Muggles you live with," said Ernie swiftly.

"It's not possible to live with the Dursleys and not hate them," said Harry. "I'd like to see you try it."

He turned on his heel and stormed out of the library, dragging Faykan by the wrist as the boy looked ready to hex Ernie into next month.

Striding blindly through the corridors, Harry almost ran into Hagrid. He only managed to stop in time because Faykan pulled him up short.

"Oh, hello, Hagrid," Harry said, looking up.

Hagrid's face was entirely hidden by a woolly, snow covered balaclava, but it couldn't possibly be anyone else, as he filled most of the corridor in his moleskin overcoat. A dead rooster was hanging from one of his massive, gloved hands.

"All righ', Harry, Faykan?" he asked, pulling up the balaclava so he could speak. "Why aren't yeh in class?"

"It was canceled." Faykan said, then, glancing at the dead rooster, asked, "What's that for?"

Hagrid looked at the limp rooster, as if barely remembering that he was holding it.

"Second one killed this term," he explained. "It's must be foxes, I've been seeing this big black one hangin' round the castle, an' I need the Headmaster's permission ter put a charm around the hen coop."

Faykan looked away nervously while Hagrid peered more closely at Harry from under his thick, snow flecked eyebrows.

"Yeh sure yeh're all righ' Harry? Yeh look all hot an' bothered…"

Harry couldn't bring himself to repeat what Ernie and the rest of the Hufflepuffs had been saying about him, so he simply said that he was fine.

"We'd better get going, Hagrid, it's Transfiguration next and we got to pick up our books."

With that the two boys walked off, leaving Hagrid and his dead rooster in the corridor. Harry's mind was still full of what Ernie had said about him as he and Faykan climbed up the stairs and turned down another particularly dark corridor, made so by the extinguished torches. They were halfway down the hallway when Harry tripped headlong over something lying on the floor.

"Harry, are you…" Faykan said as he turned to help Harry up, stopping as he noticed what his friend had tripped over.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was laying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight Harry had ever seen.

It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

Faykan pulled Harry to his feet, their breathing very fast and shallow, while Harry's heart was doing a kind of drum roll inside his ribcage. As Harry looked up and down the hall for any signs of what had petrified Justin and Nick, he saw Faykan kneel next to Justin's motionless body and wave his wand over the frozen boy, muttering, " _elea amin mani templa sina edan umartempla yassen._ " Faykan's eyes seemed to gloss over, and he remained there frozen in a trancelike state for several moments. Harry was ready to start panicking when he heard a familiar wheezing voice behind him.

"Caught in the act Potter," Harry spun to see Filch stepping out of the shadows. The caretaker smiled a yellow toothy grin, "I'll have you out this time boy, mark my words…" With that he disappeared down the corridor as Harry called out that it wasn't what it looked like.

Harry was about to chase after Filch when he heard Faykan gasp in shock and jerk back, falling to the floor. He stared wildly around, wide eyed until he spotted Harry, just as Professor McGonagall rounded the corner. She took one look at Harry, and turned to Faykan kneeling on the floor with his wand out.

"This way Potter, Undol," she said slowly.

"Professor," Harry said abruptly, "I swear we didn't…"

"This is out of my hands Potter," she replied curtly.

They marched behind her in silence and Professor McGonagall stopped before a large and extremely ugly stone gargoyle.

"Lemon drop!" she said. This was evidently a password, because the gargoyle suddenly sprang to life and hopped aside as the wall behind him split in two. Even full of dread for what was coming, Harry couldn't fail to be amazed. A glance at Faykan, however, showed that his friend was completely unimpressed. Behind the wall was a spiral staircase that was moving smoothly upward, like an escalator. As he, Faykan and Professor McGonagall stepped onto it; Harry heard the wall thud closed behind them. They rose upward in circles, higher and higher, until at last, slightly dizzy, Harry spotted a gleaming oak door ahead, with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin. Harry realized that he was being led to Dumbledore's office.

 _elea amin mani templa sina edan umartempla yassen: show me what magic this man is cursed with_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned!**

 _So, naturally this chapter contains quite a bit of the continuation of what had been taken from the original, and canon beyond that, but rather than leaving the explanation at that, I will go further into depth on why Faykan seems to be simply allowing this to occur, despite what connections he has to the past, as an Istari or someone close to them I will not say for certain, but someone of increased power and wisdom, he still would have had to known beforehand the exact specifics of what was going on a the school to be able to counter it from canonical events. Let's face it, Dumbledore is supposed to come across as a brilliant wizard, in both this and canon, and even HE wasn't aware that the monster was a Basilisk, due to petrification not being a primary mode of what the beast did, but a side effect from the interaction between its deathly stare and a reflective surface, which normally would be considered quite out of the ordinary. secondly, he suspected that it had something to do with Voldemort the first time the chamber was opened while he was at the school, but without a direct means of knowing how or where Voldemort was accessing the school to open the chamber, which we as the reader know is via the horcrux diary, he had nothing to suspect, on top of the fact that his suspicion of the Horcruxes did come until after he saw the diary at the end of CoS. While I will saw that Faykan's knowledge of magic rivals, if not supersedes Albus, these two facts would still throw off whatever investigation he may or may not be doing on the side, off camera as it were, and therefore would have not had much effect on what the other characters had seen._

 _Nevertheless, even in the process of writing this very explanation, I have been struck with new possible scenes or add-ins to make this more clear in the text of the story itself, rather than consuming effectively an AN to do so. You are all so wonderful to be supportive of this marvelous exercise of mine, which has allowed me to analyze my own writing style with a more critical eye and thusly improve, I dare say leaps and bounds from when I first commenced writing, and so I thank you immensely for the opportunity! More to come in due time! ~F_


	19. Y2-C6: Mysteries Deepen

_So, not a lot of activity in the review department going on here, but I guess that's ok, its bound to happen occasionally, despite best hopes. Regardless, the next chapter, I really need to get back into editing on ahead, things have been difficult with all else that i'm up to these days, and college on top of it all. anyway, cheers! ~F_

 **Chapter Six**

 **Mysteries Deepen**

Harry and Faykan stepped off the stone staircase behind Professor McGonagall, and waited apprehensively as she rapped her knuckles upon the wooden door. It opened silently, and the trio entered the office. Professor McGonagall told the two to wait and left them alone, presumably in search of Professor Dumbledore.

Harry decided to take a look around, and wandered off, leaving Faykan standing alone in the middle of the room. It was quite large, beautiful, but above all, entrancing. Quirky and decidedly strange noises came from every direction. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and occasionally emitting little puffs of smoke. Every inch of the wall was covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames. In the center of it all was an enormous claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby tattered wizard's hat: the Sorting Hat.

Harry was just wondering if he should put the Sorting Hat on again and ask if he had been placed in the correct house, when a strange, gagging noise drew his attention to a golden perch behind the door. Faykan was standing next to the perch, and sitting on it was something that looked like a half-plucked turkey. Harry stared at it, and the bird glared back balefully, making the gagging noise again. It looked quite ill. Its eyes were dull and, even as Harry watched, a couple more feathers fell out of its tail.

"Is it alright?" he asked Faykan as he joined him to look at the bird. It would be all he needed if Dumbledore's pet bird died while they were alone in his office.

"It will be," Faykan said, just as the bird burst into flames. Harry yelled in shock and stepped back, but Faykan remained where he was as the bird turned into a fireball, gave a loud shriek, and disappeared into a smoldering pile of ashes in a tray beneath the perch.

"Harry, relax. It's a phoenix," Faykan said as he bent toward the pile of ashes. "When they die, they burst into flames and are reborn from the ashes." He dusted a light layer of the ashes aside, revealing a tiny newborn bird, which crooned slightly as it raised its head to look at Faykan.

"It's a shame you had to see Fawkes on a Burning Day," said a voice behind the two boys, who turned to see Dumbledore in the process of seating himself behind his desk. "He's really very handsome most of the time, such wonderful red and gold plumage. Rather fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have remarkable healing powers, and they make highly faithful companions."

Before Dumbledore could speak another word, however, the door of the office flew open with an almighty bang and Hagrid burst in, a wild look in his eyes, his balaclava perched on top of his shaggy black head and the dead rooster still swinging from his hand as he urgently ranted about how he had spoken to Harry and Faykan minutes before Justin was found and that it couldn't have been either of them who attacked the boy. Dumbledore could not get a word in edgewise.

"Hagrid!" Dumbledore finally half shouted, "I do not believe that either of these boys attacked anyone."

"Oh," said Hagrid, the rooster falling limply at his side. "Right, I'll wait outside then, Headmaster."

And he stomped out looking embarrassed.

"You don't think it was us, Professor?" Harry repeated hopefully as Dumbledore brushed stray rooster feathers off his desk.

"No, Harry, I don't," said Dumbledore, though his face was somber again. "But I still want to talk to you both."

"I must ask you, boys, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me," he said gently, "anything at all."

Harry had no idea what to say. Thoughts of Nott, the Polyjuice potion and the voice that he had heard twice this term swirled in his head. Looking at Faykan, Harry saw that his friend was looking pointedly away from Dumbledore and finally Harry shook his head. "No, there isn't anything Professor…" he said.

"Very well Harry, you may go." Harry and Faykan turned to leave, but Dumbledore called Faykan back. "Mister Undol, if I may have a few more private words with you." Harry watched the door swing closed in his face, blocking his view of Faykan and Dumbledore.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

When the door to his office had closed, Albus regarded the boy standing before him, determinedly avoiding meeting the Professor's gaze. Young Mr. Undol was a small, thin boy, smaller then even Harry, and very much akin to the build both his father and grandfather had at his age. His black hair was kept shoulder-length, and the young man held himself with a supreme sense of confidence. This troubled Albus. 'How can one who appears so young seem so mature and wise,' he mused inwardly, rallying his thoughts and questions.

There were indeed a great deal of questions that he wished to poise to this young boy, but while there were many things that were equally pressing, none of them mattered as much as what the boy was planning. Albus was keenly aware that the wards he placed on the Dursley's residence would have blocked all witches and wizards from finding Harry, who didn't know of the location already, as told my Albus, Hagrid or Minerva, who were all present shortly before Albus' letter had activated the wards. The fact that a young wizard boy, no matter the heritage or potential magical strength, flat out ignored these sorts of wards, which were the best protection that one could hope for short of a full Fidelius Charm, and found Harry regardless of Albus' designs, were alarming in the most extreme fashion.

"Faykan," Albus finally began after a few moments of silence, and the boy cleared his throat in a way of acknowledgement. "I wanted to ask you a few questions regarding your relationship with Harry." The boy raised one eyebrow, mildly surprised at this development.

Pressing on quickly, Albus continued, "I've heard from Arabella Figg that you arrived at her home five summers ago and immediately befriended Harry Potter, remaining close by him ever since." Albus knew a lot more than that from Mrs. Figg.

She had reported of Faykan showing up on her doorstep out of the blue, with some story of the abrupt death of his parents, and of him requesting to stay with her for a short time. He had sought out Harry Potter and spent the next three years constantly by his side. The boy had evidently even taken young Harry to Diagon Alley for his first year supplies.

"Yes, that's true, Headmaster." Faykan replied continuing to look anywhere, at the portraits, at the Sorting Hat, at the golden perch by the door… anywhere besides Albus' eyes.

"What I'd like to know is how you found out where Harry lived, and your intentions with him." Albus asked, staring straight into the boy's face and trying to peer into his mind, to see the truth behind those crystal blue eyes.

Faykan faced Albus at last, looking somewhat incensed at being questioned about his friends. "I have no idea what you mean Professor. I found Harry by happy chance. I remain by him because he completes me, gives me purpose." Albus gazed into the boy's mind, trying to find the true answers he sought.

What he found was most unexpected. Mist surrounded the boy's thoughts, hiding them from the great wizard's view, Occlumency to be sure, but on a scale greater than anything that the Headmaster had ever encountered before. Albus could do no more than blindly grab at stray memories and ideas, which naturally gave him little to work with.

Faykan's mind was well organized and defended; catching the boy off guard to read his mind would prove very difficult. But Albus was prepared. He pushed a false memory into the mind, a memory of suffering, of pain. It worked perfectly, drawing enough of Faykan's attention for Albus to siphon off a single memory undetected, and retreating. Twin voices rang in his mind, one deep and powerfully resonating, the other high and piercing. " _The sleeper must be awakened, or the world is lost…_ "

Albus eyed Faykan, who, slightly shaken, was glaring angrily at the Headmaster. "Was that really necessary, Professor?" he asked, before storming out of the office, slamming the door behind him. Albus merely smiled, his mind trying to work out the information that he had gleaned from the boy's mind.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned the general mood of nervousness and unease into full-blown panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. 'What could possibly do that to a ghost?' people asked each other, as well as, 'What terrible power could harm someone who was already dead?'

There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas. Ron commented that he, Harry, Faykan, Hermione, Draco, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle would be the only ones left at the castle at the rate people were vacating. Harry was rather glad that most people were leaving the castle; he was tired of everyone muttering about him when he passed them in the corridors.

At last the term ended, and Harry found the silence rather peaceful. He rather enjoyed that he, along with Faykan, Hermione and the Weasleys, had full run of Gryffindor Tower, meaning that they could play loud games of Exploding Snap or practice dueling in private.

Christmas morning dawned cold and white. Harry, Faykan and Ron, the only ones left in their dormitory, were woken very early by Hermione, who burst in, fully dressed with a pile of presents in her arms.

"Wake up," she said loudly, pulling back the curtains at the window.

"Hermione, you're not supposed to be in here…" said Ron, shielding his eyes against the light.

"Merry Christmas to you, too," said Hermione, throwing him his present. "I've been up for nearly an hour, adding more lacewings to the potion... It's ready."

Harry sat up, suddenly wide awake.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," said Hermione, shifting Scabbers the rat so that she could sit down on the end of Ron's four-poster. "If we're going to do it, I say it should be tonight."

At that moment, Hedwig swooped into the room, carrying a very small package in her beak. She nibbled Harry's ear in an affectionate sort of way, which was a far better present than the one that she had brought him, which turned out to be from the Dursleys. They had sent Harry a toothpick and a note telling him to find out whether he'd be able to stay at Hogwarts for the summer vacation too.

The rest of Harry's Christmas presents were far more satisfactory. Hagrid had sent him a large tin of treacle fudge, which Harry decided to soften by the fire before eating. Ron had given him a book called _'Flying with the Cannons',_ filled with interesting facts about his favorite Quidditch team.

Hermione had bought him a luxury eagle-feather quill and Faykan had given a small crystal phial filled with a translucent liquid that gave off a pale light from somewhere deep within. Glancing at his friend in amusement and delight, Harry watched as Faykan unwrapped what looked like a dagger, silvery white with runes written on the blade.

Faykan's eyes widened as he looked at it and he ran a hand lovingly down the side of the blade. Harry finally opened the last present to find a new, hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large plum cake. He read her card with a fresh surge of guilt, thinking about Mr. Weasley's car and the bout of rule-breaking that he, Faykan and Ron were planning next.

The Great Hall looked magnificent that evening at dinner. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led them in a few of his favorite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumed.

Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read ' _Pinhead_ ', kept asking them all what they were sniggering at. Harry didn't even care that Nott was making loud, snide remarks about his and Faykan's new sweaters from the Slytherin table. With a bit of luck, Nott would be getting his comeuppance in a few hours' time.

Harry had barely finished his third helping of pudding when Hermione ushered him and Ron out of the hall to finalize their plans for the evening. In the entrance hall they found Draco and Faykan waiting for them.

"We still need a bit of the people you're changing into," said Hermione, as though she were sending them to the supermarket for laundry detergent. "And obviously, it'll be best if you can get something of Crabbe's and Goyle's; they're Nott's best friends, he'll tell them anything. And we also need to make sure the real Crabbe and Goyle can't burst in on us while we're interrogating him."

Hermione continued on that she had already prepared two chocolate cakes with a simple sleeping draft for Harry and Ron to give to Crabbe and Goyle, and that they were to take some of their hairs after they were fast asleep, then lock them in a broom cupboard.

"Whose hair are you two pulling out then?" Ron said, slightly irritably.

Faykan jerked his thumb at Draco while Hermione stated that she had hair that she had gotten off of Millicent Bulstrode's robes. With that, Faykan, Draco and Hermione left to check the potion and wait for Harry and Ron to acquire their hairs.

"Have you ever heard of a plan where so many things could go wrong?" Ron said to Harry in an undertone as they turned back to the Great Hall.

Surprisingly, their first part of the plan went better than Harry or Ron could have expected. The two Gryffindors waited outside the Great Hall, and when their target Slytherins had arrived, Harry expertly levitated the two cakes in plain sight. Crabbe and Goyle noticed the cakes immediately, devoured them both greedily, and keeled backwards onto the floor, out cold.

After they had stuffed the two large Slytherins into a closet, Harry and Ron bolted to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom with their hairs, as well as Crabbe and Goyle's shoes, figuring that their feet would grow too large for their own footwear. Faykan and Draco were waiting just inside the door for them, and thick black smoke was pouring from the stall in which Hermione was stirring the cauldron.

"Did you get them?" Hermione asked breathlessly when she spotted them. When they showed her the hairs, she smiled. "Good. And I snuck these spare robes out of the laundry," Hermione said, holding up a small sack. "You'll need bigger sizes once you're Crabbe and Goyle," Hermione said, when Ron had raised his eyebrows quizzically at the sack of robes. Then, as she divided the potion into four tumblers, she explained that the once they drank the potion, they would have exactly one hour before it wore off.

A yelp of pain came from behind them, and Harry turned to see Draco rubbing at a spot on his head while glaring scathingly at Faykan, who was grinning and holding several strands of Draco's silver-blond hair in his hand.

Hermione handed them each a tumbler and they separated to add their hairs to the potion and drink it in separate stalls. Harry dropped Goyle's hair into his glass, and it frothed disgustingly, turning the khaki color of a booger.

"Ready?" he called.

"Ready," came Faykan's, Ron's and Hermione's voices.

"One… two… three…"

Pinching his nose, Harry drank the potion down in two large gulps. It tasted like overcooked cabbage. Immediately, his insides started writhing as though he'd just swallowed live snakes. Doubled up, he wondered fleetingly whether he was going to be sick, then a burning sensation spread rapidly from his stomach to the very ends of his fingers and toes. Next, bringing him gasping to all fours, came a horrible melting feeling, as the skin all over his body bubbled like hot wax. His hands began to grow before his eyes: the fingers thickened, the nails broadened, the knuckles were bulging like bolts. His shoulders stretched painfully and a prickling on his forehead told him that hair was creeping down toward his eyebrows. His robes ripped as his chest expanded like a barrel bursting its hoops, and his feet were agony in shoes four sizes too small.

As suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. Harry lay face down on the stone cold floor, listening to Myrtle gurgling morosely in the toilet at the end of the row. With difficulty, he kicked off his shoes and stood up. So this was what it felt like, being Goyle. His large hands trembling, he pulled off his old robes, which were hanging a foot above his ankles, pulled on the spare ones, and laced up Goyle's boat-like shoes.

He reached up to brush his hair out of his eyes and met only the short growth of wiry bristles, low on his forehead. Then he realized that his glasses were clouding his eyes because Goyle obviously didn't need them; he took them off and called, "Are you all okay?" Goyle's low rasp of a voice issued from his mouth.

"Yeah," came the deep grunt of Crabbe from his right. Harry unlocked his door and stepped in front of the cracked mirror. Goyle stared back at him out of dull, deep-set eyes. Harry scratched his ear. So did Goyle. Ron's door opened. They stared at each other. Ron was almost indistinguishable from Crabbe, save for the fact that he looked pale and shocked, from the pudding-bowl haircut to the long, gorilla arms.

"This is unbelievable," said Ron, approaching the mirror and prodding Crabbe's flat nose. "Unbelievable."

"I'll say," Draco said as he watched a perfect copy of himself exit the stall nearest the door. Faykan grinned at the looks he was given as he commented, "You know Draco, for a Slytherin, you don't taste so bad in Polyjuice." The real Draco started to instruct his doppelganger on the location and password to the Slytherin common room while Harry and Ron called for Hermione to hurry up.

A high pitched voice answered them. "I… I don't think I'm going to come after all. You three go on without me."

"Hermione, we know Millicent Bulstrode's ugly, no one's going to know it's you…" Ron started, but Hermione interrupted him.

"No, really, I don't think I'll come. You three hurry up, you're wasting time." She replied, sounding somewhat concerned.

"I'll stay with her while you go do your little investigation," Draco offered, and Harry and Ron followed Faykan as he led them out of the bathroom and down to the dungeons. They had a short run in with Percy, which Faykan handled with ease, perfectly mimicking Draco's disdain for the pompous Gryffindor prefect. Harry was only slightly surprised by Faykan's calm exterior as they continued navigating the dungeons. 'He must have spent most of first year exploring the castle so he wouldn't get lost' Harry mused as Faykan stopped by a stretch of bare, damp wall. "Pureblood," Faykan spoke in Draco's voice, and a stone door concealed in the wall slid open, granting them entrance.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high backed chairs, Nott among them.

"There you are," he drawled, looking at Harry and Ron. "Have you two been pigging out in the Great Hall all this time? I've been looking for you. I want to show you something really funny, even you might have a laugh, Malfoy."

Grabbing a newspaper next to him, Nott shoved it under Faykan's nose. Faykan scanned it quickly, gave a slight snort of disbelief, and passed it to Ron and Harry. The headline read:

' _INQUIRY AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC_

 _Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, was today fined fifty Galleons for bewitching a Muggle car._

 _Mr. Lucius Malfoy, a governor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the enchanted car crashed earlier this year, called today for Mr. Weasley's resignation._

 _"Weasley has brought the Ministry into disrepute," Mr. Malfoy told our reporter. "He is clearly unfit to draw up our laws and his ridiculous Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped immediately."_

 _Mr. Weasley was unavailable for comment, although his wife told reporters to clear off or she'd set the family ghoul on them._ '

"Well?" said Nott impatiently as Harry handed the clipping back to him. "Don't you think it's funny?"

"Ha, ha," said Harry bleakly.

"Arthur Weasley loves Muggles so much he should snap his wand in half and go and join them," said Nott scornfully. "You'd never know the Weasleys were purebloods, the way they behave."

Ron's, or rather, Crabbe's, face was contorted with fury.

"What's up with you, Crabbe?" snapped Nott, not missing the expression.

"Stomachache," Ron grunted.

Nott suggested that Ron go to the hospital wing, and while he was there to give the muggleborns a good kick from him. He continued to rant about how the attacks were probably being covered up by Dumbledore and that a decent headmaster wouldn't let in people like Colin Creevey. Harry took a moment to watch Faykan's reactions to Nott's behavior. Oddly enough, Faykan looked completely comfortable sitting in the darkness of the dungeons, so different from the unease that Harry could see in Ron's eyes, or feel in himself.

"Saint Potter, the Mudbloods' friend," continued Nott slowly. "He's another one with no proper wizard feeling, or he wouldn't go around with that jumped up Granger Mudblood. And people think he's Slytherin's heir!"

"Surely though," Faykan drawled in Draco's voice, while Harry and Ron waited with bated breath; the subject had been breached at last, "you have some idea who is behind these attacks Nott?"

"I wish I knew who it is," said Nott petulantly. "I could help them." He leaned forward to the other three boys, lowering his voice, "However, I do have a suspicion. I think it might be that Undol boy who's practically is attached to Potter at the hip. He seems very shady to me, some of those spells he used at the dueling club were way beyond second year. He's definitely hiding something. And I'm willing to place money on that he's either the heir of Slytherin, or he's got something up his sleeve regarding Potter far deeper than anyone else has noticed." Harry stole another glance at Faykan, idly searching for some amount of truth or denial about what was said, but Draco's face had remained completely unchanged by Nott's suspicions, seemingly frozen in a mask of icy indifference.

Nott continued, completely unaware of the furtive looks passing between his three listeners, "But my father won't tell me anything about the last time the Chamber was opened either. It was fifty years ago, so it _was_ during his time, and he knows a lot about it, but all he says that it was kept quiet and it'll look suspicious if I know too much about it. But he did tell me one thing. The last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So I bet it's a matter of time before one of them is killed this time... I hope its Granger," he said with relish.

Faykan caught Harry's eye again, and he tapped his watch casually, letting them know it was about time for them to leave. They all stood abruptly, "Medicine for my stomach," Ron grunted at Nott's puzzled look, and without further ado, they sprinted the length of the Slytherin common room, hurled themselves at the stone wall, and dashed up the passage, hoping that Nott wouldn't follow.

By the time they reached Myrtle's bathroom, they had all changed back to their normal selves. "Well, it was a complete waste of time," Ron panted, closing the bathroom door behind them. "Not completely," Harry reminded him as he turned to Draco, who was standing in front of a central stall. "Where's Hermione, Draco? We have loads to tell you both."

"Go away!" Hermione squeaked from inside the stall.

The three Gryffindor boys looked at Draco in bewilderment.

"What's the matter?" said Ron. "She must be back to normal by now, we are…"

But Moaning Myrtle glided suddenly through the stall door. Harry had never seen her looking so happy. "Ooooooh, wait till you see," she said cheerfully. "It's awful…"

They heard the lock slide back and Hermione emerged around Draco, sobbing, her robes pulled up over her head.

"What's up?" said Ron uncertainly. "Have you still got Millicent's nose or something?"

Hermione let her robes fall and Ron backed into the sink in shock. Her face was covered in black fur. Her eyes had turned yellow and there were long, pointed ears poking through her hair. She explained between sobs that the Polyjuice potion was only for human transformations, and she must have accidentally pulled a cat hair off Millicent Bulstrode's robes. Myrtle continued to laugh happily at Hermione's misfortune, and it took the four boys nearly an hour more to persuade her to go up to the hospital wing.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

By the time term restarted, Hermione was still in the hospital wing. Many people thought she was attacked, and groups of students constantly showed up to try and get a look at her, until Madam Pomfrey finally set curtains around her bed to give her some privacy. Harry, Ron, and Faykan visited her every morning, bringing the previous day's homework with them.

The three boys were just leaving her to head back to Gryffindor Tower to get their own work started, when they heard an angry outburst from the floor above them. "That sounds like Filch," Harry muttered as they hurried up the stairs and poked their heads around the corner to see what the commotion was about.

Filch had clearly been manning his usual lookout post, although he was nowhere in sight now. They were once again on the spot where Mrs. Norris had been attacked. They saw at a glance what Filch had been shouting about. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor and it looked as though it was still seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Now that Filch had stopped shouting, they could clearly hear Myrtle's wails echoing off the bathroom walls.

"Now what's up with her?" Faykan commented dryly, clearly not wanting to investigate.

"Let's go and see," said Harry, and holding their robes over their ankles he and Ron stepped through the great wash of water to the door bearing its _'OUT OF ORDER'_ sign, ignored it as always, and entered, Faykan trudging behind them, muttering about melodramatic ghosts.

Moaning Myrtle was crying, if possible, louder and harder than ever before. She seemed to be hiding down her usual toilet. It was dark in the bathroom because the candles had been extinguished in the great rush of water that had left both walls and floor soaking wet.

"What's up, Myrtle?" said Harry.

"Who's that?" glugged Myrtle miserably. "Come to throw something else at me?"

Harry waded across to her stall and said, "Why would I throw something at you?"

"Don't ask me," Myrtle shouted, emerging with a wave of yet more water, which splashed onto the already sopping floor. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me...

"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you," said Ron, reasonably. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?"

He had said the wrong thing. Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked, "Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head! Well, ha, ha, ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"

"But who threw it at you, anyway?" asked Harry.

"I don't know... I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head," said Myrtle, glaring at them. "It's over there, it got washed out..."

Harry, Faykan and Ron looked under the sink where Myrtle was pointing. A small, thin book lay there. It had a shabby black cover and was as wet as everything else in the bathroom. Faykan stepped over and bent to pick it up, but withdrew his fingers right before touching it, as if electrocuted. Harry stepped forward to pick it up instead, but Ron suddenly flung out an arm to hold him back.

"What?" said Harry.

"Are you crazy?" said Ron. "It could be dangerous."

"Dangerous?" said Harry, laughing. "Come off it, how could it be dangerous?"

"You'd be surprised," Faykan said softly.

The little book lay on the floor, nondescript and soggy.

"Well, we won't find out unless we look at it," Harry said, and he ducked around Ron and picked it up off the floor.

Harry saw at once that it was a diary, and the faded year on the cover told him it was fifty years old. He opened it eagerly. On the first page he could just make out the name ' _T. M. Riddle_ 'in smudged ink. Faykan narrowed his eyes on reading the name, and then turned away in thought.

"Hang on," said Ron suddenly, who had approached cautiously and was looking over Harry's shoulder. "I know that name... T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."

"How on earth d'you know that?" said Harry in amazement.

"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention," said Ron resentfully. "That was the one I burped slugs all over. If you'd wiped slime off a name for an hour, you'd remember it, too."

Harry carefully peeled the wet pages apart. They were completely blank. There wasn't the faintest trace of writing on any of them, not even anything like ' _Auntie Mabel's birthday_ ,' or ' _dentist, half-past three_.'

"He never wrote in it," said Harry, disappointed.

"I wonder why someone wanted to flush it away…" said Ron curiously. Harry shrugged and pocketed the book. Faykan said nothing, having gone very quiet at the sound of the name.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: you have been warned!**

 _Yay, another expanded Albus section at last! I know, it seemed that I had been in a slump of not changing anything drastically for a while, but we've found yet another one that needed work, especially with the slightly different direction that I have been going with the esteemed Headmaster and his investigation of dear Faykan Undol. encouragement would be most desired at this point, as I have indeed neglectd editing these chapters for a while, in favor of other things and schoolwork, and I do dearly wish to get to book three soon, where I know there will be a great deal to add and change which will make everyone quite pleased. Many thanks my lovely readers! ~F_


	20. Y2-C7: Tom Riddle

_Thanks for the support, no amusing comment this time, too busy, enjoy... ~F_

 **Chapter Seven**

 **Tom Riddle**

Hermione left the hospital wing dewhiskered, tail-less, and completely fur free, at the beginning of February. On her first evening back in Gryffindor Tower, Harry showed her T. M. Riddle's diary and he, Faykan and Ron told her the story of how they had found it. She found the fact that Faykan refused to touch the little book curious, but chalked it up to the same reasoning that Ron had for wanting to leave it in Myrtle's bathroom.

"Ooh, it might have hidden powers," said Hermione enthusiastically, taking the diary and turning it over in her hands, looking it over. She figured that since the little black book was fifty years old it might hold information about the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, but even after using both _Aparecium_ and her Revealer she couldn't find any trace of writing anywhere on the book except for the name on the front.

Ron was convinced that Riddle never used the diary, while Harry kept wondering about why it had been in the bathroom. Faykan however, Hermione noticed, didn't speculate about the diary, but constantly asked Harry to dispose of it as quickly as possible.

Coupling that with his reluctance to touch the book, Hermione was almost certain that he was _afraid_ of Riddle's diary. But despite all of the boy's pleadings Harry clung to the book like Riddle was an old friend. The four of them looked in the trophy room at the award that Riddle had received for special services to the school, but there were no clues to be found as to what services he had performed to earn it. They also found his name on an old Medal for Magical Merit as well as the list of old Head Boys, but no other clues that might point to his identity.

"He sounds like Percy," said Ron, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Prefect, Head Boy... probably top of every class…"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," said Hermione in a voice feigning hurt, while Faykan snorted in suppressed laughter.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The Heir of Slytherin didn't make a reappearance at the school during the first two weeks of February, yet most people were still convinced that Harry was the Heir, having 'given himself away,' at the Dueling Club meeting. Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff was leading the spread of rumors throughout the school that Harry had purposely sought out Justin and attacked him, even leading into the absurd conclusion that Faykan was most likely the monster.

Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to think that his timely intervention had made the attacks stop. Harry overheard him telling Professor McGonagall that, and that he would protect her if need be while the Gryffindors were lining up for Transfiguration.

"I don't think that there'll be any more trouble, Minerva," he said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking in what he must have thought was a charming way. "I think the Chamber has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught up with him. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on him. You know, what the school needs now is a morale booster. Wash away the memories of the last term! I won't say any more just now so as to not spoil the surprise, but I think I know just the thing…"

Lockhart's idea of a morale booster became apparent at breakfast on the fourteenth as Harry and Faykan entered the Great Hall. Harry had been up quite late the previous night with Quidditch practice, and Faykan had stayed up to wait for him in the common room, so they were slightly late from sleeping in. Faykan shuddered visibly as they entered, and Harry thought that they had entered the wrong room.

The walls were covered with large and lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. Harry dragged Faykan over to the Gryffindor table, where Ron was sitting looking sickened, and Hermione seemed to have been overcome with giggles.

"What's going on?" Harry asked them, sitting down and wiping confetti off his bacon.

Ron pointed at the teachers' table, apparently too disgusted to speak. Lockhart, wearing bright pink robes to match the decorations, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were sitting straight-backed and stony faced. From where he sat, Harry could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall's cheek. Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted cheerfully. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all… and it doesn't end here!"

Lockhart clapped his hands and a dozen surly-looking dwarves marched through the doors to the entrance hall. Not just any dwarves, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

"My friendly, card carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any other wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force fed poison.

All day long, the dwarves kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, much to the annoyance of the teachers, and late that afternoon as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarves caught up with Harry.

"Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry.

Hot all over at the thought of being given a valentine in front of a line of first years, which happened to include Ginny Weasley, Harry tried to escape. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached him before he'd gone two paces.

"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way after shoving past Faykan.

"Not here," Harry hissed, trying to escape.

"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.

"Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging.

With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, wand, parchment, and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over everything.

Harry scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor.

"What's going on here?" came the cold, drawling voice of Theodore Nott. Harry started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, desperate to get away before Nott could hear his musical valentine.

"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy Weasley arrived.

Losing his head, Harry tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

"Right," he said, sitting on Harry's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:"

" _His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,_

 _His hair is as dark as a blackboard._

 _I wish he was mine, he's really divine,_

 _The hero who conquered the Dark Lord"_

Harry would have given all the gold in Gringotts to evaporate on the spot. Faykan finally grabbed the dwarf and heaved the small man off of Harry, muttering angrily into its ear. All Harry could hear as Faykan pushed the dwarf away was, " _Ishkhaqwi ai durugnul._ How far the house of Durin have fallen to stoop to this." The dwarf looked at Faykan with a mix of surprise and anger before storming valiantly to laugh along with everyone else, Harry got up, his feet numb from the weight of the dwarf, as Percy Weasley did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth.

"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class, now," he said, shooing some of the younger students away. "And you, Nott…"

Harry, glancing over, saw Nott stoop and snatch up something. Leering, he showed it to Crabbe and Goyle, and Harry realized that he'd got Riddle's diary.

"Give that back," said Harry quietly.

"Wonder what Potter's written in this?" said Nott, who obviously hadn't noticed the year on the cover and thought he had Harry's own diary. A hush fell over the onlookers. Ginny was staring from the diary to Harry, looking terrified.

"Hand it over, Nott," said Percy sternly.

"When I've had a look," said Nott, waving the diary tauntingly at Harry.

Percy said, "As a school prefect…" but Harry had lost his temper. He pulled out his wand and shouted, " _Expelliarmus!_ " and just as Snape had disarmed Lockhart, so Nott found the diary shooting out of his hand into the air. Grinning broadly, Ron reached out and caught it.

Percy shouted after Harry as the three younger Gryffindors moved off to Charms, but none of them listened. It wasn't until they had reached Professor Flitwick's class that Harry noticed something rather odd about Riddle's diary.

All his other books were drenched in scarlet ink. The diary, however, was as clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it. He tried to point this out to Ron, but his best friend was having trouble with his wand again; large purple bubbles were blossoming out of the end, and he wasn't much interested in anything else. Harry didn't try to tell Faykan, because he was starting to get sick of him pleading with Harry to ditch the book in a bin or burn it in the common room fireplace every time it was mentioned.

Harry sat on his four-poster that night and flicked through the blank pages, not one of which had a trace of scarlet ink on it. Then he pulled a new bottle out of his bedside cabinet, dipped his quill into it, and dropped a blot onto the first page of the diary.

The ink shone brightly on the paper for a second and then, as though it was being sucked into the page, vanished. Excited, Harry loaded up his quill a second time and wrote, ' _My name is Harry Potter_.'

The words shone momentarily on the page and they, too, sank in without trace. Then, at last, something happened. Oozing back out of the page, in his very own ink, came words Harry had never written.

' _Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?_ '

These words, too, faded away, but not before Harry had started to scribble back.

' _Someone tried to flush it down a toilet_.'

He waited eagerly for Riddle's reply.

' _Lucky that I recorded my memories in some more lasting way than ink, but I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read_.'

' _What do you mean?_ ' Harry scrawled, blotting the page in his excitement.

' _I mean that this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up. Things that happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._ '

' _That's where I am now,_ ' Harry wrote quickly. ' _I'm at Hogwarts, and horrible stuff's been happening. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?_ '

His heart was hammering. Riddle's reply came quickly, his writing becoming untidier, as though he was hurrying to tell all he knew.

' _Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally managing to kill one. I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. Everyone was told that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned_.'

Harry nearly spilled his ink bottle in his haste to write back.

' _It's happening again now. There have been three attacks and no one seems to know who's behind them. Who was it last time?_ '

' _I can show you, if you like,'_ came Riddle's reply. ' _You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him._ '

Harry hesitated, his quill suspended over the diary. What did Riddle mean? How could he be taken inside somebody else's memory? He glanced nervously at the door to the dormitory, which was growing dark in the fading light of the lamps. When he looked back at the diary, he saw fresh words forming.

' _Let me show you._ '

Harry paused for a fraction of a second and then wrote two letters.

' _Ok_ '

The pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping halfway through the month of June. Mouth hanging open, Harry saw that the little square for June thirteenth seemed to have turned into a miniscule television screen. His hands trembling slightly, he raised the book to press his eye against the little window, and before he knew what was happening, he was tilting forward; the window was widening, he felt his body leave his bed, and he was pitched headfirst through the opening in the page, into a whirl of color and shadow.

He felt his feet hit solid ground, and stood, shaking, as the blurred shapes around him came suddenly into focus.

He knew immediately where he was. This circular room with the sleeping portraits was Dumbledore's office; but it wasn't Dumbledore who was sitting behind the desk. A wizened, frail looking wizard, bald except for a few wisps of white hair, was reading a letter by candlelight. Harry had never seen this man before.

Harry looked around the office. No Fawkes the phoenix, no whirring silver contraptions. This was Hogwarts as Riddle had known it, meaning that this unknown wizard was Headmaster, not Dumbledore, and he, Harry, was little more than a phantom, completely invisible to the people of fifty years ago.

There was a knock on the office door.

" _Enter,_ " said the old wizard in a feeble voice.

A boy of about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver prefect's badge was glinting on his chest. He was much taller than Harry, but he, too, had jet black hair.

" _Ah, Riddle,_ " said the Headmaster.

" _You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?_ " said Riddle. He looked nervous.

" _Sit down,_ " said Dippet. _"I've_ _just been reading the letter you sent me._ "

" _Oh,_ " said Riddle. He sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.

" _My dear boy,_ " said Dipper kindly, " _I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?_ "

" _No,_ " said Riddle at once. " _I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to that… to that…_ "

" _You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?_ " said Dippet curiously.

" _Yes, sir,_ " said Riddle, reddening slightly.

Dippet clucked his tongue sympathetically.

" _The thing is, Tom…_ " He paused and sighed. " _Special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances..._ "

" _You mean all these attacks, sir?_ " said Riddle, and Harry's heart leapt, and he moved closer, scared of missing anything.

" _Precisely,_ " said the headmaster. " _My dear boy, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow you to remain at the castle when term ends. Particularly in light of the recent tragedy ... the death of that poor little girl... You will be safer by far at your orphanage. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Magic talking about closing the school as we speak. We are no nearer locating the, err… source of all this unpleasantness..._ "

Riddle's eyes had widened.

" _Sir, if the person was caught… if it all stopped…_ "

" _What do you mean?_ " said Dippet with a squeak in his voice, sitting up in his chair. " _Riddle, do you mean you know something about these attacks?_ "

" _No, sir,_ " said Riddle quickly.

But Harry was sure it was the same sort of 'no' that he himself had given Dumbledore earlier when he had asked both him and Fay if they had any suspicions about the attacks.

Dippet sank back, looking faintly disappointed.

" _You may go, Tom..._ "

Riddle slid off his chair and slouched out of the room. Harry followed him.

Down the moving spiral staircase they went, emerging next to the gargoyle in the darkening corridor. Riddle stopped, and so did Harry, watching him. Harry could tell that Riddle was doing some serious thinking. He was biting his lip, his forehead furrowed.

Then, as though he had suddenly reached a decision, he hurried off, Harry gliding noiselessly behind him. They didn't see another person until they reached the entrance hall, when a tall wizard with long, sweeping auburn hair and a matching beard called to Riddle from the marble staircase.

" _What are you doing, wandering around this late, Tom?_ "

Harry gaped at the wizard. He was none other than Dumbledore, fifty years younger than the one he knew.

" _I had to see the Headmaster, sir,_ " said Riddle.

" _Well, hurry off to bed,_ " said Dumbledore, giving Riddle exactly the kind of penetrating stare Harry knew so well. " _Best not to roam the corridors these days, not since..._ "

He sighed heavily, bade Riddle good night, and strode off. Riddle watched him walk out of sight and then, moving quickly, headed straight down the stone steps to the dungeons, with Harry in hot pursuit.

But to Harry's disappointment, Riddle didn't lead him into a hidden passageway or a secret tunnel, but to the very dungeon in which Harry had Potions with Snape. Riddle pushed the door almost closed and started to watch the outer passage when Harry saw movement in the room they were in. Riddle seemed to be aware of it, but didn't react until there was a dark shape directly behind him. Spinning quickly, Riddle grabbed the shape and lit his wand at the same time. Harry gasped in astonishment as Riddle pinned a boy against the wall of the dungeon, a boy that looked exactly like a sixteen-year-old _Faykan_. But surely it wasn't Faykan, Harry thought, it must have been his grandfather at least…

" _Hello Tom,_ " the older version of his friend said with an eerily similar grin.

" _Undol…_ " Riddle replied, not withdrawing his hand from the other boy's throat. " _Why are you following me?_ "

" _What's wrong Tom,_ " the mysterious duplicate of an old Fay replied cheekily, " _no whispered words for me, like you do with all you other_ ' _friends_ ' _._ "

" _You know perfectly well we're not friends._ " Tom hissed back, " _You made sure of that almost six years ago_ …"

Harry studied the boy, looking for differences with his friend. He couldn't find anything except for age . The older Undol had slightly longer hair, but the same piercing blue eyes, and the only other glaring difference from his friend were the Slytherin robes he was wearing. It made some sense that Faykan's ancestors were in Slytherin, as the sorting hat had tried to place his friend in the house as well. Riddle ignored the comment the shorter boy had made and stepped closer to him, lowering his voice to a deadly whisper.

" _You shouldn't be out this late Undol, the monster has killed a Mudblood and it's still on the loose._ " Tom added after turning back from glancing down the corridor through the crack in the door.

The older Undol didn't seem phased by the mention of Slytherin's monster, " _I'll take my chances Tom_ ," he said." _The better question is why perfect Prefect Tommie is out chasing after wayward Slytherins in the dead of night…_ " he smiled again and started playing with the sleeve of Riddle's robes, clearly doing so just to irritate the other boy.

Riddle tightened his grip on Faykan's ancestor and glared at him, " _I'm not here chasing after you, if that's what you think._ " He let go of the other boy with a shove and directed him to the door. " _Get back to the common room or I will inform a teacher of your little nighttime stroll._ "

Undol just grinned back at Tom, " _I'll go Tom, but don't think I haven't a clue what you're up to; Dumbledore isn't the only one that sees through your façade._ " Riddle pushed Undol out the door and with a glare closed the door back to a crack. The other boy merely laughed to himself and walked away, sending a pointed look and a wink back to where Riddle and Harry were hidden, leaving them back to the silence of waiting.

It felt to Harry that they were there for at least an hour. All he could see was the figure of Riddle at the door, staring through the crack, waiting like a statue. And just when Harry had stopped feeling expectant and tense and started wishing he could return to the present, he heard something move beyond the door.

Someone was creeping along the passage. He heard whoever it was pass the dungeon where he and Riddle were hidden. Riddle, quiet as a shadow, edged through the door and followed, with Harry tiptoeing behind him, forgetting for the moment that he couldn't be heard.

For perhaps five minutes they followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, his head inclined in the direction of new noises. Harry heard a door creak open, and then someone speaking in a hoarse whisper.

" _C'mon... gotta get yeh outta here... C'mon now... in the box..."_

There was something familiar about that voice...

Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner. Harry stepped out behind him. He could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to it.

" _Evening, Rubeus,_ " said Riddle sharply.

The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.

" _What yer doin' down here, Tom?_ "

Riddle stepped closer.

" _It's all over,_ " he said. " _I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop._ "

" _N' at d'yeh…_ "

" _I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and…"_

" _It never killed no one!_ " said the large boy, backing against the closed door. From behind him, Harry could hear a funny rustling and clicking.

" _Come on, Rubeus,_ " said Riddle, moving yet closer. " _The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered..._ "

" _It wasn't him!_ " roared the boy, his voice echoing in the dark passage. " _He wouldn'! He never!_ "

" _Stand aside,_ " said Riddle, drawing out his wand.

His spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The door behind the large boy flew open with such force it knocked him into the wall opposite. And out of it came something that made Harry let out a long, piercing scream unheard by anyone present.

A vast, low-slung, hairy body and a tangle of black legs; a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor-sharp pincers, Riddle raised his wand again and cried, " _Arania Exumai_." He was too late. The thing bowled him over as it scuttled away, tearing up the corridor and out of sight. Riddle scrambled to his feet, looking after it; he raised his wand, but the huge boy leapt on him, seized his wand, and threw him back down, yelling, " _NO!_ "

The scene whirled, the darkness became complete; Harry felt himself falling and, with a crash, he landed spread eagled on his four-poster in the Gryffindor dormitory, Riddle's diary lying open on his stomach.

The door to the dormitory opened and Ron and Faykan entered.

"There you are," Ron said.

Harry sat up. He was sweating and shaking.

"What's up?" said Faykan, looking at him with concern.

"It was Hagrid." Harry said, breathless, "Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."

 _Ishkhaqwi ai durugnul : I spit upon your grave_

 **Potenial Spoiler's Ahead, you have been warned!**

 _Only small additions here for clarity, truly preoccupied right now with other things, college and homework and other things. More next time, enjoy! ~F_


	21. Y2-C8: The Heir of Slytherin?

_I am nearly finished editing Book 2, and I am excited for what is to come with the 3rd installment, which is where I planned a great deal of changes to begin, so hurray for that. Thanks to those who are reading, and the few of you who review both here and on the original story. but it was more of a time jump chapter, even in canon than anything, so don't hate me too much. more excitement to come soon. enjoy! ~F_

 _P.S, no AN at the end this time, there wasn't enough changes to really warrant going through them, mainly grammatical and syntax, but significantly more in the next few... ~F_

 **Chapter Eight**

 **The Heir of Slytherin?**

It was common knowledge that Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. But just as common was the knowledge that Hagrid would never wish to intentionally kill anyone.

Harry half-wished he hadn't found out how to work Riddle's diary. Again and again Ron, Faykan and Hermione made him recount what he'd seen, until he was heartily sick of telling them and even more so in regards to the long, circular conversations that followed. Faykan had been surprised at first when Harry told him about Riddle's encounter with his grandfather, as Harry had guessed the Slytherin version of his friend had had to be, but said little about it.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person," said Hermione. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people..."

"He definitely got the wrong person," Faykan corrected her, not looking up from the book he was reading.

"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Ron asked dully.

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled," added Harry miserably.

"And the attacks must've stopped only after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have gotten his award."

Ron tried a different tact. "Riddle does sound like Percy, who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?"

"But the monster had killed someone, Ron," countered Hermione.

"And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts," Faykan replied, continuing to read.

"I don't blame him for wanting to stay here..." Harry said softly, and Faykan was the only one to hear, looking up momentarily to meet Harry's eyes and give him a knowing smile of agreement.

In the end, they all decided that they wouldn't say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, and as more and more days went by with no whispers from the disembodied voice, they became hopeful that they would never need to bring up the subject with the gamekeeper.

It was now nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been Petrified, and nearly everybody seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. Ernie Macmillan asked Harry quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day, creating a sort of uneasy truce between the two, and in March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three. This made Professor Sprout very happy, as it meant they were close to maturity.

The second years were given something new to think about during their Easter holidays. The time had come to choose their extra subjects in preparation for the third year, a matter that Hermione, at the least out of them, took very seriously.

"It could affect our whole future," she told Harry and Ron as they poured over lists of new subjects, marking ones that seemed interesting with checks. Faykan just snorted at her.

Ron sighed gloomily. "We have to keep all our old subjects too, or I'd've ditched Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"But that's very important!" said Hermione, shocked.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it," said Ron. "I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose…"

Neville Longbottom had been sent letters from all the witches and wizards in his family, each giving him different advice on what to choose. Confused and worried, he sat reading the subject lists with his tongue poking out, asking people whether they thought Arithmancy sounded more difficult than the study of Ancient Runes. Dean Thomas, who, like Harry, had grown up with Muggles, ended up closing his eyes and jabbing his wand at the list randomly, picking the subjects it landed on. Hermione took nobody's advice and simply signed up for everything.

Harry smiled grimly to himself at the thought of what Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia would have to say if he tried to discuss his career in wizardry with them. Not that he didn't get any guidance in the subject, as Percy Weasley was more than eager to share his experience.

"Depends where you want to go, Harry," he said. "It's never too early to think about the future, so I'd recommend Divination. People say Muggle Studies is a soft option, but I personally think wizards should have a thorough understanding of the nonmagical community, particularly if they're thinking of working in close contact with them; look at my father, he has to deal with Muggle business all the time. My brother Charlie was always more of an outdoor type, so he went for Care of Magical Creatures. Play to your strengths, Harry."

But the only thing Harry felt he was really good at was Quidditch. In the end, he chose the same new subjects as Ron, feeling that if he was lousy at them, at least he'd have someone friendly to help him. Faykan rolled his eyes at the choices, but picked the same as Harry and Ron, saying that they would be boring if he was in any of them without his two best friends.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Gryffindor's next Quidditch match was set to be against Hufflepuff. Oliver Wood was insisting on team practices every night after dinner, so Harry barely had time for anything but Quidditch and homework. However, the training sessions were getting better, or at least drier, and the evening before Saturday's match he went up to his dormitory to drop off his broomstick feeling that Gryffindor's chances for the Quidditch cup had never been better.

But his cheerful mood didn't last long. At the top of the stairs to the dormitory, he met a frantic-looking Neville.

"Harry, I don't know who did it, I just found…"

Watching Harry fearfully, Neville fell silent and pushed open the door. The contents of Harry's trunk had been thrown everywhere. His cloak lay ripped on the floor. The bedclothes had been pulled off his four-poster and the drawer had been pulled out of his bedside cabinet, the contents strewn over the mattress.

Harry walked over to the bed, open-mouthed, treading on a few loose pages of ' _Travels with Trolls_ '. As he and Neville pulled the blankets back onto his bed, Ron, Faykan, Dean, and Seamus came in. Dean swore loudly.

"What happened, Harry?" he demanded.

"No idea," replied Harry. But Ron was examining Harry's robes. All the pockets were hanging out.

"Someone's been looking for something," said Ron. "Is there anything missing?"

Harry started to pick up all his things and throw them into his trunk, while Faykan repaired everything that had been damaged. It was only as Harry threw the last of the Lockhart books back into it that he realized what wasn't there.

"Riddle's diary's gone," he said in an undertone to Ron and Faykan.

"What?" Ron said in astonishment, before blushing when Faykan jabbed him in the ribs to silence him.

Harry jerked his head toward the dormitory door and his best friends followed him out. They hurried down to the half-empty Gryffindor common room and joined Hermione, who was sitting alone, reading a book called ' _Ancient Runes Made Easy_ '.

Hermione was aghast at the news. "But, only a Gryffindor could have stolen… nobody else knows our password…" she said, already trying to reason out who the guilty party was.

"Exactly," said Harry grimly.

Unfortunately, with no proof or even a single lead as to where they might start looking, there was nothing that Harry, Ron, Hermione, or even Faykan, could do. They woke the next day to brilliant sunshine and a light, refreshing breeze.

"Perfect Quidditch conditions!" said Wood enthusiastically at the Gryffindor table during breakfast, loading the team's plates with scrambled eggs. "Harry, buck up there, you need a decent breakfast." He commented, noticing the grim mood that Harry was in.

Harry had been staring down the packed Gryffindor table, wondering if the new owner of Riddle's diary was sitting right in front of his eyes. Faykan had commented that he was just glad the book was gone. Hermione urged him to report the robbery, but Harry didn't like the idea. He'd have to tell a teacher all about the diary, and exactly how many people knew why Hagrid had been expelled fifty years ago? He didn't want to be the one who brought it all up again.

As the four Gryffindors left the Great Hall so Harry could go and collect his Quidditch things, another very serious worry was added to his growing list. He had just set foot on the marble staircase when he heard it yet again.

" _Kill this time... let me rip... tear..._ "

He shouted aloud and Ron, Faykan and Hermione all jumped away from him in alarm.

"The voice!" said Harry, looking over his shoulder. "I just heard it again… didn't you?"

Ron shook his head, wide-eyed. Hermione, however, clapped a hand to her forehead.

"Harry… I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!"

And she sprinted away, up the stairs, ignoring Faykan's call of warning, "Hermione! Don't! It's not safe!"

"What does she understand?" said Harry distractedly; still looking around, trying to figure out where the voice had come from.

"Loads more than I do," said Ron, shaking his head.

"But why's she got to go to the library?" Harry continued, confused at her actions when the problem was here in the Entrance Hall.

"Because that's what Hermione does," said Faykan, looking back the way she had run, his face contorted with worry. "When in doubt, go to the library."

Harry stood, irresolute, trying to catch the voice again, but people were now emerging from the Great Hall behind him, talking loudly, exiting through the front doors on their way to the Quidditch pitch.

"You'd better get moving," said Ron. "It's nearly eleven… the match…"

Harry raced up to Gryffindor Tower, collected his Nimbus Two Thousand, and joined the large crowd swarming across the grounds, but his mind was still in the castle along with the bodiless voice, and as he pulled on his scarlet robes in the locker room, his only comfort was that everyone was now outside to watch the game. The teams walked onto the field to tumultuous applause. Oliver Wood took off for a warm up flight around the goal posts; Madam Hooch released the balls. The Hufflepuffs, who played in canary yellow, were standing in a huddle, having a last minute discussion of tactics.

Harry was just mounting his broom when Professor McGonagall came half marching, half running across the pitch, carrying an enormous purple megaphone. Harry's heart dropped like a stone, recognizing the tense look of worry on his Head of House's face.

"This match has been cancelled," Professor McGonagall called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium. There were boos and shouts. Oliver Wood, looking devastated, landed and ran toward Professor McGonagall without getting off his broomstick.

"But, Professor!" he shouted. "We've got to play… the cup, Gryffindor…"

Professor McGonagall ignored him and continued to shout through her megaphone, "All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

Then she lowered the megaphone and beckoned Harry over to her. "Potter, I think you'd better come with me..."

Wondering how she could possibly suspect him this time, Harry saw Ron and Faykan detach themselves from the complaining crowd; they came running up to them as they set off toward the castle. To Harry's surprise, Professor McGonagall didn't object.

"Yes, perhaps you'd better come too boys..." she said, trailing off as she turned to lead them back toward the castle.

Some of the students swarming around them were grumbling about the match being canceled; others looked worried. The three boys followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. But they weren't taken to anybody's office this time.

"This will be a bit of a shock," said Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice as they approached the infirmary. "There has been another attack... another double attack."

Harry's insides did a horrible somersault. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and he, Faykan and Ron entered. Madam Pomfrey was bending over a fifth year girl with long, curly hair. And on the bed next to her was…

"Hermione!" Ron groaned.

"No…" Faykan said in a whisper, dashing over to her bed and kneeling by her motionless form.

Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy.

"They were found near the library," said Professor McGonagall. "I don't suppose either of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them...

She was holding up a small, circular mirror. Faykan looked at it, tears in his eyes, and then he turned back to Hermione and rested his head on her arm, whispering "I warned her, I warned her not to go…"

Harry and Ron shook their heads as Professor McGonagall turned to them with the mirror. "I will escort you three back to Gryffindor Tower," said Professor McGonagall heavily. "I need to address the students in any case."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The Gryffindors packed inside the common room listened to Professor McGonagall in silence. She had just read from a scroll saying that all students would be supervised at all times, between classes and in the evenings, and that Quidditch was completely suspended as well as all other evening activities. She rolled up the parchment and said in a somewhat choked voice, "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

She climbed somewhat awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the Gryffindors began talking immediately. But Harry was only half listening. He didn't seem to be able to get rid of the picture of Hermione, lying on the hospital bed as though carved out of stone. And if the culprit wasn't caught soon, he was looking at a lifetime back with the Dursleys. Tom Riddle had turned Hagrid in because he was faced with the prospect of a Muggle orphanage if the school closed. Harry now knew exactly how the boy had felt.

"What're we going to do?" said Ron quietly in Harry's ear. "D'you think they suspect Hagrid?"

"We've got to go and talk to him," said Harry, making up his mind. "I can't believe it's him this time, but if he set the monster loose last time he'll know how to get inside the Chamber of Secrets, and that's a start."

"But McGonagall said we've got to stay in our tower unless we're in class…"

"I think," said Faykan, quietly, "it's time to get your dad's old cloak out again."

Harry admitted that Faykan was right. The cloak was their only chance of sneaking out of the school to visit Hagrid without anyone knowing about it. They went to bed at the usual time, waited until Neville, Dean, and Seamus had stopped discussing the Chamber of Secrets and finally fallen asleep, then got up, dressed again, and threw the cloak over themselves. Faykan didn't trust using his animagus form this time, and the three of the crowded under the cloak.

The journey through the dark and deserted castle corridors wasn't enjoyable. Harry, who had wandered the castle at night several times before, had never seen it so crowded after sunset. Teachers, prefects, and ghosts were marching the corridors in pairs, staring around for any unusual activity. Their Invisibility Cloak didn't stop them making any noise, and there was a particularly tense moment when Ron stubbed his toe only yards from the spot where Snape stood standing guard. Thankfully, Snape sneezed at almost exactly the moment Ron swore. It was with relief that they reached the oak front doors and eased them open. The night was clear and the stars shone brightly over their heads. They hurried toward the lit windows of Hagrid's house and only pulled off the cloak when they were right outside his front door.

The door flung open wildly seconds after they had knocked. They found themselves face-to-face with Hagrid aiming a crossbow at them. Fang the boarhound barked loudly behind him.

"Oh," he said, lowering the weapon and staring at them. "What're you three doin' here?"

"What's that for?" said Harry, pointing at the crossbow as they stepped inside.

"Nothin'… nothin'…" Hagrid muttered. "I've bin expectin'… doesn' matter, Sit down… I'll make tea…"

He hardly seemed to know what he was doing. He nearly extinguished the fire, spilling water from the kettle on it, and then smashed the teapot with a nervous jerk of his massive hand. Faykan repaired it with a wave of his hand.

"Are you okay, Hagrid?" said Harry. "Did you hear about Hermione?"

"Oh, I heard, all righ'," said Hagrid, a slight break in his voice. He kept glancing nervously at the windows. He poured them all large mugs of boiling water, the teabags had been forgotten, and was just putting a slab of fruitcake on a plate when there was a loud knock on the door.

Hagrid dropped the fruitcake. Harry and Ron exchanged panic-stricken looks, then threw the Invisibility Cloak back over themselves and retreated into a corner. Faykan shifted into his Animagus form and settled into Hagrid's large chair. Hagrid checked that they were hidden, blinked once at confusion at Faykan the fox, seized his crossbow, and flung open his door once more.

"Good evening, Hagrid."

It was Dumbledore. He entered, looking deadly serious, and was followed by a second, very odd-looking man. Faykan's ears perked as the man entered.

The stranger had rumpled gray hair and an anxious expression, and was wearing a strange mixture of clothes: a pinstriped suit, a scarlet tie, a long black cloak, and pointed purple boots. Under his arm he carried a lime green bowler hat.

"That's Dad's boss!" Ron breathed. "Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic!"

Harry elbowed Ron hard to make him shut up.

Hagrid had gone pale and sweaty. He dropped into his chair, almost sitting on Faykan, who jumped to the table to escape, and looked from Dumbledore to Cornelius Fudge.

"Bad business, Hagrid," said Fudge in rather clipped tones. "Very bad business. Had to come. Four attacks on Muggleborns. Things've gone far enough. The Ministry's got to act." Faykan growled lowly at the minister, who only glanced slightly at the fox before turning back to Hagrid.

"I never," said Hagrid, looking imploringly at Dumbledore. "You know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir…"

"I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence," said Dumbledore, frowning at Fudge, even as he reached forward and scratched the soft fur behind Faykan's head, silencing the fox.

"Look, Albus," said Fudge, uncomfortably. "Hagrid's record's against him. The Ministry's got to do something, the school governors have been in touch…"

"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not help in the slightest," said Dumbledore. His blue eyes were full of a fire Harry only seen once before, in Faykan as they set down the third floor corridor the previous year.

"Look at it from my point of view," said Fudge, fidgeting nervously with his bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. Got to be seen to be doing something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more said. But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty…" Faykan snarled louder at Fudge, baring his teeth. It drew the attention of everyone in the room, but only Dumbledore's eyes lingered on the black fox for more than a few moments.

"Take me?" said Hagrid, who was now trembling. "Take me where?"

"For a short stretch only," said Fudge, not meeting Hagrid's eyes. "Not a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution. If someone else is caught, you'll be let out with a full apology…"

"Not Azkaban?" croaked Hagrid.

Before Fudge could answer, there was another loud rap on the door.

Dumbledore answered it. It was Harry's turn for an elbow in the ribs; he'd let out a very audible gasp.

Mr. Lucius Malfoy strode into Hagrid's hut, swathed in a long black traveling cloak, smiling a cold and satisfied smile. Fang started to growl and Faykan let out a high, sharp bark-like noise.

"Already here, Fudge," he said approvingly. "Good, good..."

"What're you doin' here?" said Hagrid furiously. "Get outta my house!"

"My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being inside your… you call this a house?" said Lucius Malfoy, sneering as he looked around the small cabin. "I simply called at the school and was told that the headmaster was here."

"And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" said Dumbledore. He spoke politely, but the fire was still blazing in his blue eyes.

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," said Malfoy lazily, taking out a long roll of parchment, "but the governors feel it's time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension; you'll find all twelve signatures on it. I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have there been now? Two more this afternoon, wasn't it? At this rate, there'll be no Muggleborns left at Hogwarts, and we all know what an _awful_ loss that would be to the school."

Both Fudge and Hagrid started to argue that Dumbledore needed to stay at Hogwarts, but Mr. Malfoy wouldn't be swayed. Dumbledore finally had to calm Hagrid, "If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside," he said.

And with that, Mr. Malfoy turned, and Dumbledore left after looking directly where Harry and Ron were hidden, as if he could see them. Fudge looked to Hagrid, waiting for him to leave next. Hagrid patted Faykan on the head once absently, and said carefully, "If anyone wanted ter find out some _stuff_ , all they'd have to do would be ter _follow the_ _spiders_. That'd lead 'em right! That's all I'm sayin'." Hagrid left with Fudge on his heels. When the door closed Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off himself and Ron as Faykan changed back into his human form.

"We're in trouble now," Ron said hoarsely. "Without Dumbledore, they might as well close the school now. There'll be an attack a day with him gone."

"I'm going to have to have a nice long chat with Draco about his father," Harry said, frowning at the closed front door.


	22. Y2-C9: The Spider's Hollow

_Greetings, dear readers. Soon, so very soon, we will finally arrive at the first major section of the story that i desired to rewrite, the intro and beginning of "book 3" and the introduction of the elements of LotR into the sotry. very exciting, but until then, please enjoy the chapter! ~F  
_

 **Chapter Nine**

 **The Spider's Hollow**

Draco took the news of Hermione's attack rather hard. Over the past year he had grown quite close to the four Gryffindors, and her absence was sorely missed. The four boys weren't even allowed to visit her anymore, as Madam Pomfrey had barred anyone not actually injured from the hospital wing, and even some of those she would treat in the corridor outside the locked infirmary.

"We're taking no more chances," Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off..."

Harry, Ron, and Faykan told Draco everything they had overheard at Hagrid's, and both Harry and Ron ranted about Draco's father for a while, which stung, but Draco knew that what they felt was normal and probably true. But still, Dumbledore's cryptic sense of knowing and simply allowing Lucius to force him out of the school was very odd. Hagrid's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand, but the trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow.

With Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled. Draco couldn't be more ashamed of his father for forcing Dumbledore out of the school at a time like this, not that he was in any position to say anything to Lucius. Draco knew full well the consequences of going against his father's wishes. It was the only thing he wished to tell his friends when they accosted him about his father.

One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Theodore Nott was strutting around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy. Draco didn't realize what he was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind Nott, Draco, Faykan, Ron and Harry overheard him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle.

"I always thought Mr. Malfoy might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," he said, not troubling to keep his voice down as he smirked toward Draco. "I told you my father and Mr. Malfoy both think Dumbledore's the worst Headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent Headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long; she's only filling in..."

Snape swept past Draco and Harry, making no comment about Hermione's empty seat and cauldron.

"Sir," said Nott loudly. "Sir, why don't you apply for the Headmaster's job?"

"Now, now, Nott," said Snape, though he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."

"Yeah, right," said Nott, smirking. "I expect you'd have Mr. Malfoy's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job, I'll tell my father to tell him you're the best teacher here, sir…"

Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.

"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Nott went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger…"

The bell rang at that moment, which was a stroke of luck for the Slytherin; at Nott's last words, Ron had leapt off his stool and in the scramble to collect bags and books, his attempts to reach Nott went unnoticed.

"Let me at him," Ron growled as Harry and Faykan clung on to his arms. "I don't care, I don't need my wand. I'm going to kill him with my bare hands…"

Faykan suddenly clamped a hand over Ron's mouth and said quietly to Draco and Harry, "I've figured it out, the spiders. Remember, I saw them early this year heading into the Forbidden Forest. That has to be where they're all going."

Ron started to squirm behind Faykan's hand, and Draco paled. "The forest? Aren't there supposed to be… werewolves in there?" he asked sheepishly.

"There are good things in there, too. Like the unicorns," Harry commented. Sadly, this did little to ease Draco's mood, nor Ron's, if his face was any indication of it. But before they could talk further, Snape called for the Gryffindors to assemble so he could lead them to their next class, Herbology.

During dinner, Draco was interrupted from talking with Daphne Greengrass when the large form of Roac, Faykan's pet raven, landed next to his plate and dropped a small message to him before alighting into the air again. Glancing at the message quickly, Draco spied his Gryffindor friends watching him from across the room. Giving the three boys a short nod, Draco burned the message, memorizing it as it turned to ashes:

' _We're doing it tonight. Meet at Slytherin common room entrance after midnight.'_

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry went to get the Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk right after dinner with Faykan, and as he pulled it out he noticed the small glass phial that Faykan had given him for Christmas. On a whim he pocketed it, thinking that it could be an extra light source if anything. Before they returned to the common room, Harry saw Faykan clip the silver-white dagger to his belt, hiding it under his cloak. While they waited for midnight, Fred and George challenged Harry, Faykan and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap, and Ginny sat watching them, very subdued in Hermione's usual chair. The three second years kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred, George, and Ginny finally went to bed.

They waited for the sounds of the dormitory doors closing before Harry and Ron threw the cloak around them and followed Faykan the fox down to the Slytherin common room.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco waited in the chair closest to the secret door out to the dungeons from the common room. It was well past midnight and all the other Slytherins had gone to bed, but Draco knew that the Gryffindors would show eventually, even if they were late. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Draco heard a rhythmic tapping from the door, and quietly opened it to find Faykan in his vulpine form, waiting for him. Harry and Ron opened the cloak a bit to allow Draco to squeeze in with them, and they made their way back up to the entrance hall and out onto the grounds.

"'Course," said Ron abruptly as they strode across the black grass, "We might get to the forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not've been going there at all. I know it may have looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but..." His voice trailed away hopefully.

They reached Hagrid's house, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. When Harry pushed the door open, Fang went mad with joy at the sight of them. Worried he might wake everyone at the castle with his deep, booming barks; they hastily fed him treacle fudge from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued his teeth together.

"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk," said Harry, patting his leg, and Fang bounded happily out of the house behind them, dashed to the edge of the forest, and lifted his leg against a large sycamore tree.

Harry took out his wand, murmured, " _Lumos_!" and a tiny light appeared at the end of it, just enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders. Draco followed suit immediately, while Faykan unsheathed the dagger. It had runes etched into the blade from hilt to point, but Draco didn't see how useful it would be in the forest.

"How's a dagger going to help against things in the forest?" Ron asked bluntly as they moved toward the line of dark trees.

"It's not a dagger Ron," Faykan said smugly. He held the small blade up in both hands and murmured, " _Glamdring goth namba hyanda en' quessir amin poldora yassen lee ra val_!"

Immediately the dagger glowed bright blue, and lengthened until the blade was over thirty inches long. Faykan tested its balance with both hands, and smiled approvingly. "Better?" he asked a wide eyed Ron. Harry suddenly pointed toward the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the light of two wands and the sword's glow into the shade of the trees.

"Okay," Ron sighed as though resigned to the worst, "I'm ready. Let's go."

So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, the four boys entered the forest. By the glow of the wands and Faykan's sword, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. They walked behind them for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves. Then, when the trees had become thicker than ever, so that the stars overhead were no longer visible, and their lights shone alone in the sea of dark, they saw their spider guides leaving the path.

Draco paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside their little spheres of light was pitch-black. He had never been in the forest before. But Hagrid had said to follow the spiders. They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes snagging on low slung branches and brambles. After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees were as thick as ever. As they went further into the forest, Faykan's sword seemed to glow more brilliantly, as if there was blue fire flying from the blade.

Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making them all jump out of their skins.

"What?" said Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping Harry's elbow very hard.

"There's something moving over there," Harry breathed. "Listen... sounds like something big...

They listened. Some distance to their right, the something big was snapping branches as it carved a path through the trees.

"Oh, no," said Ron. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh…"

"Shut up," said Faykan frantically. "It'll hear you."

"Hear him?" said Draco in an unnaturally high voice. "It's already heard Fang!"

The darkness seemed to be pressing on Draco's eyeballs as they all stood, terrified, waiting. There was a strange rumbling noise, and then, silence.

"What d'you think it's doing?" said Harry.

"Probably getting ready to pounce," said Ron.

They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.

"D'you think it's gone?" Draco whispered.

"Dunno…" Ron stopped speaking abruptly. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the forest floor, right behind Harry. His face was livid with terror.

Harry didn't even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly something large and hairy seized him around the middle and lifted him off the ground, so that he was hanging facedown.

Draco didn't have time to speak before he too was lifted off the ground, followed by Ron and Fang. The clicking sound seemed to heighten as something barreled toward Faykan, who stood still with his sword held high.

"Back foul creatures!" Faykan cried in a commanding voice, swinging his sword in a high arc, causing whatever was trying to grab him to falter and retreat from him. "I will walk to your hollow, not be carried like prey in the night." The clicking continued and Draco, Ron, and Harry were carried off deeper into shadows of the forest.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry never knew how long he was in the creature's clutches; he only knew that the darkness suddenly lifted enough for him to see that the leaf strewn ground was now swarming with spiders. Craning his neck sideways, he realized that they had reached the ridge of a vast hollow, a hollow that had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene he had ever laid eyes on.

Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying Harry made its way down the steep slope toward a misty, domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load. None of the spiders tried to advance on Faykan, who held his sword high as the blue fire danced off its blade.

Harry fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released him. Ron, Draco and Fang thudded down next to him, while Faykan ran over to help them to their feet. Fang wasn't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly like Harry felt. His mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping.

Harry suddenly realized that the spider that had dropped him was saying something. It had been hard to tell, because he clicked his pincers with every word he spoke.

" _Aragog!_ " it called. " _Aragog!_ "

And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind.

" _What is it?_ " he said, clicking his pincers rapidly.

" _Men,_ " clicked the spider who'd had caught Harry.

" _Is it Hagrid?_ " said Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.

" _Strangers,_ " clicked the spider who'd had brought Ron.

" _Kill them,_ " clicked Aragog fretfully. " _I was sleeping..._ "

"Descendant of Shelob and Ungoliant, you will hear us," Faykan yelled, causing a stir amongst the spiders, "for we are friends of Hagrid…"

 _Click, click, click_ went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow.

Aragog paused.

" _Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before,_ " he said slowly.

"Hagrid's in trouble," said Harry, breathing very fast. "That's why we've come."

" _In trouble?_ " said the aged spider, and Harry thought he heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. " _But why has he sent you?_ "

"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a, a… something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban." Draco said nervously.

Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause, except applause didn't usually make Harry feel sick with fear.

" _But that was years ago,_ " said Aragog fretfully, " _years and years ago. I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free._ "

"And you... you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?" said Harry, who could feel cold sweat on his forehead.

" _I!_ " said Aragog, clicking angrily. " _I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered, and blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me. I have lived here in the forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness..._ "

Harry summoned what remained of his courage.

"So you never… attacked anyone?"

" _Never,_ " croaked the old spider. " _It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet..._ "

"Do you know what did kill that girl?" said Faykan. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again…"

His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes shifted all around him.

" _The thing that lives in the castle,_ " said Aragog " _is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school._ "

"What is it?" said Harry urgently.

More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in, just barely staying out of the light of Faykan's blade. " _We do not speak of it!_ " said Aragog fiercely. " _We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times._ "

Harry didn't want to press the subject, not with the spiders pressing closer on all sides. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward the four boys.

"We'll just go, then," Draco called desperately to Aragog, as leaves rustling behind them.

" _Go?_ " said Aragog slowly. " _I think not… my sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid._ "

Harry spun around. Feet away, towering above them was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads.

"Wands, now!" Faykan commanded. "Ron, get Fang!"

The spiders started to surge toward the boys, and Faykan swung his sword at those who dared to enter the parameter of the blue light. High screams and fierce clicking came whenever Faykan sliced through a leg or pincer.

Draco bellowed " _Arania Exumai_!" at a spider that tried to sneak behind Faykan, blasting it back into the mass of its fellows. The group started to edge back, out of the spider's hollow, Faykan and Draco fending off the spiders as best they could.

The spiders tried to block their path, but Faykan slashed his sword in a wide low arc, " _Naur en' Isengard!_ " Flames burst off the blade, scorching the ground and driving the spiders away, opening a path out of the hollow. Together they burst out running as fast away as their legs could carry them, Faykan taking the rear and pausing often to cut down any spider that caught up to him.

They ran like madmen, the spiders chasing after them, the clicking growing louder as more and more spiders joined the chase.

As they neared the tree line that marked the beginnings of the forest outside the hollow, Harry chanced a glance around. The spiders were circling them, trying to cut off their escape. Harry, in the lead, was about to raise his wand when a thought struck him. He pulled the shining phial, held it aloft and bellowed words that came spontaneously to his mind, " _Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima_!" The light inside the crystal glass magnified to rival the sun, pouring forth toward the oncoming spiders. They halted, screaming in pain and holding their forelegs up to protect their eyes. The boys kept running, passing through the midst of the now retreating spiders; they could not tolerate the light from Harry's phial.

Finally they burst out of the edge of the forest, and didn't stop until they were all partially barricaded inside Hagrid's hut. Fang dived under a blanket and began trembling. Ron had to pause outside and was violently sick in the pumpkin patch.

"Follow the spiders," said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve as he entered. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."

"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Harry.

"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" said Ron, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!" He was shivering uncontrollably now. "What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, I'd like to know?"

"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," said Harry, as he watched Faykan wipe the black spider blood from his sword, shrink it and sheath it back onto his belt, "He was innocent."

Ron gave a loud snort. Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasn't his idea of being innocent.

"So, tell me how we managed to escape them so easily?" Draco piped up, looking paler than usual. "I mean, the last thing I remember well was the spiders trying to surround us, then a blinding light…"

"That, dear Draco," Faykan said with a wide smile at Harry, "was Harry's ingenious use of the Phial of Galadriel."

"The what?" Draco and Harry responded simultaneously.

"The Phial of Galadriel, it is a crystal container which holds inside it the light of _Eärendil_ , most beloved star of the elves. Dark creatures cannot bear the light of something so pure and good. It was made for the one purpose of protecting the bearer when they are amidst the shadow of evil," Faykan explained with the grin still plastered on his face.

Harry's eyes widened. He looked down at the crystal phial in his hand, whose light had returned to a comfortable glow. 'Most beloved star of the elves?' he thought. Faykan, presuming Harry's unasked question said, "Not house elves, Harry. The _Quendi_ , the immortal elder children of _Ilúvatar_ , wisest and fairest of all beings. Galadriel was the last great leader of the noble house of _Finwë_ , which formed the second of the three great clans of their people, called the _Noldor_ , to be seen by men in all of _Arda_ , the world."

"What happened to them?" Draco asked in an awed voice.

"They left, sailing far across the sea to the undying lands of _Valinor_. Only a few remained, sacrificing their immortality to become the ancestors of all wizardkind."

"Wow…" Ron said softly. The four boys stared at the elven phial for a few solemn moments before leaving to return to the castle. Harry's mind wandered to what Aragog had told them as they approached the front doors. Something clicked in his mind, and he gasped aloud.

"That girl who died fifty years ago, Aragog said she was found in a bathroom," said Harry. "What if she never left the bathroom? What if she's still there?"

Ron rubbed his eyes sleepily, frowning through the moonlight. And then he understood, too. "You don't think… not Moaning Myrtle?"

Faykan and Draco's eyes widened with realization.

 _Glamdring goth namba hyanda en' quessir amin poldora yassen lee ra val : Glamdring foe hammer, blade of the elves strengthen me with your great power_

 _Naur en' Isengard : Fire of Isengard_

 _Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima : Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: you have been Warned!**

 _Yes, once again there was little change in this particular chapter, but don't worry, I'm on the epilogue of book two, and there have been a number of additions both there and on a few chapters before it, so there'll be something to actually talk about in this section soon._

 _ _but in th emeantime, i wanted to dicuss something that seemed to be an issue in the original version of this story, that i think people took for granted thinking that this was fnafiction and OC charcters are always self insert, mary-sue-ish characters (regardless of what ditzy Daisy Riddley thinks regarding the term, not that she bothered to understand it... Ma-REY Sue...) the main reason that canonical event continue to play out regardless of Faykan's presence... gotta love refering to my penname in the third person lol... but anyway, in seriouness. despite the obviousness that he is one of the Istar, why does that make him suddenly capable on knowing the future? events are nessessarily set in stone, and naturally if he knew and altered them they would change, but that's never been how the istari functioned in LotR, so why would i change them here? Faykan only has power to act in the situations that are thrown at him, and while he is still rapidly learning what is going on, far faster than out heroes naturally, he is not able to counter every threat, or even anticipate them. in the flashback it is clear he suspected Tom Riddle of being the Heir, but he did not know exactly how he managed it, nor does he know about the diary, which would put him in the same boat of inability to act as Dumbledore.__

 _ _that being said, a small note on dumbleore, and how many fanfiction authors treat him, as though he ought to know far more than he does. i do not agree with this liberal bashing of the man. granted, some stories pull it off well, but most seem rather, contrived in their method of suddenly revealing that Dumbledore, and oft times Ron and Hermione as well, are villians or traitors to Harry, and i just feel like such a plot twist needs a really strong foundation to make sense. granted, fanfiction is what it is, second hand and usually amature writing, my own included, although i am now an English Major because of it, and therefore i do not judge harshly what i see as i skim other stories for my own amusement, but still, there are plenty of online resources about writing narratives, many of which i browse on occassion to grab a new idea or if im struggling with how to relate something. surely i cannot be the only one who thought of this strategy and actually went through with it? i dont feel like im THAT talanted, somewhat talanted maybe but not overwhelmingly, and yet i strongly feel that the plots that i weave, while not perfect by a longshot, are at least more thought out than many i've read...__

 _ _ _ _Opinions? I'd love to discuss this in more depth if anyone has a thought constructively that they'd like to elaborate on. i might have just used this entire section as a small stage to blather on a bit, but i hope that's fine...____

 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _until next time everyone!________

 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _~F________


	23. Y2-C10: Truth behind the Smile

_We're nearly through the CoS year of the story. and I know many have been asking and worrying about when the LotR sections of the story will start to enter, and I will say first that it will begin in the early chapters of book 3, but it wont take priority until later on after that. I am pleased that people started putting forth ideas, primarily as to the identity of Faykan in the story, and it opened my mind to the idea that he could have been Maglor, the son of Fëanor, and that would be an awesome story, albeit I think it would play out vastly different from what I have put forth. at the original time of writing this story, as seen in the ANP books 1-7, I hadn't read through the entire silmarillian on my own, however I have since then, and I can quickly see the similarities, and perhaps in due time I could do something to bridge that character into the story, but I make no promises at this present time. So, no, Faykan is not an exiled Noldor, but that was a wonderful idea and I highly enjoyed it._

 _Special shoutout to gust reviewer_ EMShatzen: your comment more than made my day when I read it, and I thank you for the kindness you expressed!

~F

 **Chapter Ten**

 **Truth behind the Smile**

Three days before the start of exams, Minerva made another announcement at the start of breakfast. Severus Snape sat watching the reaction of the students as several yelled out guesses at what the good news could be. The Transfiguration Mistress finally settled the students down long enough to explain that the Mandrakes were ready at last, and the petrified people, animals, and ghosts would be returned to normalcy the next day.

There was an explosion of cheering. Severus looked over at the Slytherin table and noticed that Theodore Nott hadn't joined in. The lanky boy had been very pleased with all the misfortune that had happened this year, and Severus placed the blame fully upon the boy's Death Eater father. Severus' eyes were drawn to Draco as he stood and made his way over to the Gryffindor table, where he then sat among Potter, Weasley and Undol, and together the four boys started talking in subdued voices. They were joined shortly after by the youngest Weasley, and Severus noted how nervous and jittery the girl appeared to be. Potter, Undol and Draco seemed to become aware of this as well, and Severus cast a small spell that allowed him to overhear their conversation.

"I've got to tell you something," the Weasley girl had been mumbled.

"What is it?" Potter replied.

The girl looked as though she couldn't find the right words.

"What?" said her brother.

The youngest Weasley opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Undol leaned forward and spoke quietly, but Severus could still hear them perfectly fine.

"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?" he said

The girl drew a deep breath and, but that precise moment, another red haired Weasley appeared, looking tired and worn.

"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving; I've only just come off patrol duty." He said briskly, effectively shooing her away to make room for himself. The girl jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave her elder brother a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. The Prefect sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table.

"Percy!" said the younger Weasley boy angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!"

Severus cancelled the spell, knowing that it was unlikely that the girl knew anything terribly important. More likely she was just scared and seeking reassurance from her brother and his friends. At least, that was what he hoped himself, although he did notice that Undol and Draco continued to talk in hushed whispers. They apparently came to a conclusion, because Draco nodded and stood quickly, following the Weasley girl out to the entrance hall.

Severus smiled slightly, it was almost reminiscent of how Undol's father and Lucius had been when Severus was in school at Hogwarts, taking care of the young Slytherins like a team, one the eyes and the other the legs and kind words. Severus himself had been on the receiving end of their kindness quite often, and counted them as more than friends.

In addition to acting more like his father, young Undol had also saved Severus the need to go after the girl himself, as there was indeed something peculiar about her behavior, but if it was unsubtle enough that the four second years spotted, there was no doubt that Minerva would soon be notified and swoop in to care for her lions.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry knew the whole mystery might be solved the next day after the announcement regarding the Mandrakes without their help, but he wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up, and to his delight, it did around midmorning while they were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart.

Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away over and over, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; and it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.

"Mark my words," he said, ushering them around another corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'it was Hagrid.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are still necessary."

"I agree, sir," Harry said suddenly, making Ron drop his books in surprise. Faykan only raised a questioning eyebrow, lowering it when Harry winked at him.

"Thank you, Harry," said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass, not paying their exchange any attention whatsoever. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night..."

"That's right," added Faykan, catching on quickly. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go…"

"You know, Mr. Undol, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare for my next class..."

With that he hurried off back the way they had come.

"Prepare for his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."

They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme…

"Potter! Undol! Weasley! What are you doing?" said a stern voice right behind them. They turned to see Professor McGonagall, her mouth the thinnest of thin lines as she approached them. Faykan momentarily looked like a deer caught in headlights. Ron started stammering, trying to make an excuse.

"Hermione!" said Harry quickly. Faykan, Ron and Professor McGonagall all looked at him.

"We haven't seen her for ages, Professor," Harry went on hurriedly, stepping on Ron's foot to keep him from saying anything else, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, err, not to worry…"

Professor McGonagall was still staring at him. For a moment, Harry thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.

"Of course," she said, and to Harry's amazement, he saw a tear glistening in her beady eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you all may go and visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."

Harry, Faykan and Ron walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.

"That," said Ron fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with." Faykan nodded in agreement.

Unfortunately, they had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione.

She did let them in, but only extremely reluctantly.

"There's just no point talking to a Petrified person," she said, shaking her head as she walked away and went back to monitoring the door for attempted entry. They had to admit she had a point after they'd taken their seats next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors, and that they might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.

"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" said Ron, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know..."

But Harry wasn't looking at Hermione's face. He was more interested in her right hand. It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist. Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, he pointed this out to both Faykan and Ron.

"Try and get it out," Ron whispered, shifting his chair so that he blocked Madam Pomfrey's view.

It proved no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Harry was sure he was going to tear it. While Ron kept watch, he and Faykan tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free. Unfolding it quickly, Harry found that it was a page torn from a very old library book. Harry smoothed it out eagerly and both Faykan and Ron leaned close to read it over his shoulder.

' _Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.'_

And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Harry recognized as Hermione's. _'Pipes.'_

It was as though somebody had flicked a light on in his brain.

"This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk; a giant serpent! That why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue..." he said, growing excited. Harry looked up at the beds around him, each containing a different petrified individual.

"The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died, because no one looked it straight in the eye!" he said, realization flooding into him. "Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again... and Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror and…"

Faykan was nodding vigorously, "It makes sense! When I peered into Justin's memories, all I could see were two giant yellow eyes. But they were all blurry; he couldn't see them clearly.

Ron's jaw just dropped at the tide of information that his two best friends were unleashing from just one note by Hermione.

"And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.

Harry thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween. "The water..." he said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw its reflection..."

Faykan scanned the page in Harry's hand again, and Harry looked over it as well. The more that he looked at it, the more it made sense.

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A giant snake... Someone would've seen..."

Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.

"Pipes," he said. "Pipes... Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls..."

Faykan suddenly grabbed Harry's arm. "The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said excitedly. "What if it's in a bathroom? What if it's in…"

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!" they all said at once. They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.

"This means," said Harry, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."

"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"

"Let's go to the staff room," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll ought to be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."

They ran out of the hospital wing and downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs.

Harry and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down, while Faykan watched the door for any signs of teachers. But the bell to signal break never came.

Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified. "All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."

"Not another attack? Not now?" Faykan moaned.

"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"

"No," said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."

They hid themselves inside it, barely as it was cramped with three of them, and listened to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened," she told the silent staff room. "A pair of students has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"

"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one, _`Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber forever.'_ "

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which students?"

"Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy," said Professor McGonagall.

Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him. Faykan had blanched whiter than Harry ever remembered seeing him go.

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."

The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harry was sure it would be Dumbledore, returning to save them all. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming, which surprisingly lessened the idea that he had good news.

"So sorry, dozed off… what have I missed?"

"Just the man," Snape said sarcastically, stepping forward, "the very man. A pair of students has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last…"

Lockhart's smiled faded and his face paled.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall, cutting off his meager protests. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last, just as you've always wanted."

Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak chinned and feeble.

"V-very well," he said. "I'll… I'll be in my office, getting… getting ready." And he left the room.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall, nostrils were flaring, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories?" The teachers rose and left, one by one.

It was probably the worst day of Harry's entire life. He, Faykan, Ron, Fred, and George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.

Ron and Faykan were both very subdued. Ron was certain that Ginny had known something important for her to be taken, and Faykan blamed himself for not stopping Draco from going after her to find out what she knew.

"D'you know what?" said Ron after a long silence. "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a basilisk in there."

Neither Harry nor Faykan found any reason to argue against him, even though they both knew it might be an effort in futility. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left out the portrait hole.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps. Harry knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh… Mr. Potter, Mr. Undol, Mr. Weasley…" he said, opening the door a bit wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment, if you would be quick…"

"Professor, we've got some information for you," said Harry. "We think it'll help you."

"Err, well… it's not terribly…" The side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean, well all right…"

He opened the door and they entered. His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade green, lilac, and midnight blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.

"Are you going somewhere?" said Harry.

"Err, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call, unavoidable… got to go…"

"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.

"Well, as to that… most unfortunate…" said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I…"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" Ron argued back. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"

"Well, I must say, when I took the job…" Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "Nothing in the job description, didn't expect…"

"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you said you did in your books…"

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You're a fraud…" Faykan said in a low voice. "You've merely taken credit for what other wizards have done over the years."

"Is there anything you can do?" Ron said in disgust.

"Yes," Lockhart said, slightly ruffled, "I'm rather adept at memory charms, or else those other wizards would have gone blabbing, and I'd've never sold another book."

He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them. "Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left…"

He pulled out his wand and turned to find Faykan's already in his face.

"I don't think so…" Faykan said coldly as Ron relieved Lockhart of his wand and deftly tossed it out the open window.

"What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."

"You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to walk ahead of them at wand point. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

They sent Lockhart in first. Harry was pleased to see that he was shaking.

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.

"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Faykan, Harry and Ron. "What do you want this time?"

"To ask you how you died," said Harry.

Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.

"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then…"

Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."

"How?" said Faykan.

"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away..." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

Harry and Faykan hurried over to it, while Ron watched Lockhart. He was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face.

It looked like an ordinary sink. Faykan examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. But it was Harry that saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.

"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly as he tried to turn it.

"Harry," said Faykan. "Say something in Parseltongue."

"But…" Harry thought hard. The only times he'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when he'd been faced with a real snake. He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.

"Open up," he said.

He looked at Faykan, who shook his head.

"English," he said.

Harry looked back at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.

" _Open up_ ," he said.

Except that the words weren't what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into. Harry heard Ron gasp behind him and looked up again. He had made up his mind what he was going to do.

"I'm going down there," he said.

He needed to go; now they had found the entrance to the Chamber; especially if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny or Draco might still be alive.

"Me too," both Faykan and Ron said in unison.

There was a pause. They all turned to look at Lockhart.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just…"

He put his hand on the door knob, but Faykan and Ron both pointed their wands at him. "You can go first," Ron snarled.

White faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening. "Boys…" he said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?"

"Better you than us," Faykan said snidely. Harry jabbed him in the back with his own wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe.

"I really don't think…" he started to say, but Ron gave him a push, and he slid out of sight.

"Oh, fox boy," said Myrtle lazily, and Faykan turned to her. "If you die down there, you and your cute friends are welcome to share my toilet…"

Faykan shivered slightly, and jumped into the pipe without responding. Harry followed, quickly lowering himself slowly into the pipe, then letting go.

It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear Ron, thudding slightly at the curves.

And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand up straight in. Faykan was getting to his feet a little ways away, while Lockhart stood there covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry stood aside as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe behind him.

"I told you she was creepy…" Faykan said quietly.

"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.

All four of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. "C'mon," he said to Faykan, Ron and Lockhart, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wand light.

"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away.

But the tunnel was quiet as a grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Faykan stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny or Draco might look like if they found them, Harry led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

"Harry, there's something up there…" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder.

They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.

Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Harry edged forward, his wand held high. Faykan followed right behind him.

The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"Blimey," said Ron weakly. There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way. "Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.

Lockhart got to his feet, and then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Harry jumped forward, but too late, Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.

"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school; tell them I was too late to save the students, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of their mangled bodies. So… you first Mr. Potter, say goodbye to your memories!"

He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, " _Obliviate_!" at the same moment Faykan threw himself in front of Harry, conjuring a shining blue shield around them. Lockhart's spell was reflected back at him, directly into Ron's wand.

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Harry and Faykan flung their arms over their heads and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that was thundering to the floor. Next moment, he and Faykan were standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.

"Ron!" he shouted. "Are you okay? Ron!"

"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rock fall. "I'm okay, Lockharts gone though, I think he's been buried under the rocks…"

Harry looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try; what if the whole tunnel caved in? They were wasting time. Ginny and Draco had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours... Harry knew there was only one thing to do.

"Wait there," he called to Ron. "I'll go on. If I'm not back in an hour…"

"Like hell you're going alone," Faykan said hotly.

"I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you guys can… can get back through. And, Harry…"

"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice. And together he and Faykan set off past the giant snake skin.

Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. Faykan had drawn out his sword from within his robes, as he carried it everywhere since the adventure in the forest. The blue glow of the blade shined around them in the darkened cave, tossing shadows everywhere. And then, at last, as they crept around yet another bend, Harry saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

The boys approached the snakes, and Harry's throat became very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive. Harry could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.

" _Open_ , "said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside, Faykan right behind him, sword light illuminating the way ahead.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You have been Warned**

 _Not much in the chapter itself has been changed, as it was merely a build-up to the final confrontation in the next chapter, but I did want to touch a points that I found were somewhat blurry, and will come up later. namely that of Ron wand exploding when a spell struck it directly. I always found it somewhat odd that, for all the magical properties that was part of the core of every wand, yet they could break like nothing more than a thin stick with no reaction whatsoever. when I initially wrote this, mainly it was because I needed a reason for the ceiling to collapse, but eventually it grew into an important point that will come up several times later on, namely in the end of the 4th book and beyond, that it made sense for the magical foci to have a magic within themselves that would rupture when irrevocably broken._

 _Still, 2 chapters left for CoS, and I need to get a move on in editing Book 3... no comment, so I will let you all go. You're all wonderful, and have a wonderful pair of weeks until we meet again with the next update!_

 _~F_


	24. Y2-C11: Slytherin Speaks

_Year two is nearly completed, yay! and Even better, I've finally commenced on the edits for year three, which has slowed down considerably, mainly because of how much I wanted to add to this book and the nuances that have come with experience in writing. many thanks to those who've reviewed, your words are always welcome and appreciated. ~F_

 **Chapter Eleven**

 **Slytherin Speaks**

Harry and Faykan found themselves at the far end of a long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose up to support a ceiling lost in the darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, green gloom that reflected off the lit wand and sword.

His heart thundering in his chest, Harry stood still a moment and listened to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, just out of sight behind a pillar? And where were Draco and Ginny?

Faykan put a hand on his shoulder, calming him slightly with the reassurance, and together they made their way forward into the darkness between the serpentine columns, their footsteps echoing loudly.

Every few feet Harry wanted to freeze and listen, but Faykan kept prodding him onward, facing straight ahead and barely even inclining his head to look at him when Harry tried to protest the forward momentum. As they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue as high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.

Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth, slick floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay two small, black robed figures, one with flaming red hair, and other silvery blond.

"No…" Faykan muttered. Both he and Harry sprinted to the fallen forms, Faykan slipping for a moment as they ran. It was a point handful of seconds, seeming to stretch for much longer before they actually arrived, and Harry kneeled next to Ginny while Faykan went to Draco.

"Don't be dead… please don't be dead…" Harry whispered, more to himself than anyone as he rolled Ginny over. Her face was white as marble, and just as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she couldn't be Petrified.

"Draco, please wake up," Faykan said desperately, shaking Draco fervently. His head lolled hopelessly from side to side and Faykan pulled his hand away. It was covered in blood.

"They won't wake," said a soft voice behind the pair. Both boys jumped and spun around, Faykan brandishing his sword high, prepared to defend them all.

A tall, black haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching them. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him.

"Tom… Tom Riddle?" Harry asked, confused. Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.

"What d'you mean, they won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "They're not, not…?"

"They're still alive," Riddle replied, "but only just…"

Harry stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen. "Are you a ghost?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years.

He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Harry wondered how it had got there; but there were more pressing matters to deal with.

"Harry," Faykan said softly, "We need to get the out of here… the basilisk…"

Harry nodded, hoisted Ginny half off the floor, and went to pick his wand off the floor…

But his wand was gone.

"Where…"

Harry looked up to find Riddle twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers.

Faykan narrowed his eyes back to Riddle, "Give Harry back his wand, Tom."

A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He glanced at Faykan for a moment, and paused for a long while, studying the other boy with a look that seemed a cross between confusion and irritation.

"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes…"

Riddle snapped out of his thoughts, turning back to Harry and grinning slightly. "It won't come until it's called…" he said calmly.

Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer. "What d'you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it…"

Riddle's smile broadened. "You won't be needing it," he countered.

"How did they get like this, Tom?" Faykan asked slowly, stepping forward a bit, placing himself between Riddle and the others. Harry saw him move to the side slightly, and his left hand reached for his wand inside his robes.

"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly, his eyes not leaving Harry as he spoke, "and quite a long story. I suppose the real reason these two students are like this is because Ginny Weasley opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."

"What are you talking about?" demanded Harry, growing angry.

"The diary," Riddle said, seeming to grow excited as he talked. "My diary, little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes; how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how…" his eyes glinted, "how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter or his friends would ever like her…"

"You've been manipulating her from the beginning, haven't you Tom?" Faykan said coldly.

"You know, you remind me of someone I knew fifty years ago…" Riddle said abrasively, instantly losing his charming exterior as he shot a dirty glance at Faykan, "he was particularly nosy about my business then as well." Riddle eyed Faykan up and down for a moment once again, before adding, "You even resemble him remarkably."

"Your grandfather…" Harry breathed, his eyes meeting Faykan's momentarily before they returned to watching Riddle.

Riddle laughed; a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him and continued with his story. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry's neck. "Not that it will matter in the long run, he's long dead by now I suspect, and if you even are related to him, it's not possible that you inherited his skill or his knowledge, so you are unlikely to be much of a threat to me, even with that overlarge knife you have… rather muggle of a weapon isn't it?" Riddle spat, casting scorn over Faykan before returning his attention to Harry, the eagerness in his eyes growing every moment.

"If I say it myself, I've always been able to charm the people I needed." He said, continuing his story, "so Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..."

Riddle continued to recount how he had made Ginny open the Chamber of Secrets, and set the monster upon all the students, Nick and Mrs. Norris. Riddle mentioned that he grew very curious about Harry when he had the diary in his possession. Harry and Faykan just stared at him. The other boy seemed to think he was the most ingenious person alive to be able to trick everyone.

"From everything Ginny had told me about you," he added, "I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery, particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue…"

Riddle paused, his eyes alight as though it was Christmas as he stared at Harry. "So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. Then the boy came in behind her, and I made her take him too. She didn't want to of course; she was rather smitten with him, you see. But there isn't much life left in her... She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last... I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."

"Like what?" Harry spat, fists clenched and leaving marks in his palms from his nails.

"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you, a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent, managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?" he asked, demanding the knowledge with a red gleam in his hungry eyes.

"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was long after your time..."

Faykan's spoke next to Harry. "Because he is Voldemort, Harry…"

Harry turned to see the coldness in his friend's eyes as he gazed at Tom Riddle, shock and trace amounts of fear welling up inside him.

Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once. "Indeed I am, boy…" he said with a sidelong look at Faykan, before he turned back to Harry and grinned malevolently.

"To business then, Harry." He said, as though growing bored already talking to them, "Twice; in your past, in my future, we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly, "the longer you and your friend stay alive."

Harry was thinking fast, weighing his chances. Riddle had his wand and the Basilisk. Harry and Faykan had one wand and a sword between them. It looked bad, all right... but the longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny and Draco... and in the meantime, Harry noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becoming clearer, more solid... If it had to be a fight between them and Riddle, better sooner than later.

"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me," Harry said abruptly. "I don't know myself but I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me; my common Muggleborn mother," he added, suddenly shaking with his suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you… we both saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul…"

Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it back into that awful smile. "So… Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I can see now... there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both halfbloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike... but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."

Harry stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again.

"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against _famous_ Harry Potter, and his faithful _bodyguard_."

He cast an amused eye at Faykan again, and then simply walked away. Harry stepped slowly towards Faykan as Riddle stopped between the stone feet and looked up into the face of Slytherin. Harry felt something cold and metallic press into his hand, and he closed his fist around it desperately.

"When I yell, run for the exit, don't look back, no matter what, just get yourself out. I will hold him off." Faykan whispered in his ear.

But Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed just then, but Harry was too distract by being able to understand what he was saying to listen to Faykan: " _Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four."_

Harry spun to look at the statue, lifting Faykan's sword in his hands. It was surprisingly light for such a large weapon. Faykan had also raised his wand in a defensive position, ready to cast at the first sign of movement from Riddle or the statue.

Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horrorstruck, Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.

"Go Harry!" Faykan shouted as he darted forward. Harry turned and ran, just as something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. But what chance could Faykan have against a Basilisk, the king of serpents? Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice: " _Kill them_."

Immediately, Harry heard the commanding voice of Faykan shout a spell, " _elea naara wanwa._ " There was a roar of pain, and Harry couldn't help himself. He turned to look. The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. Where the snake's eyes should have been were two cauterized holes, as if the sockets had been burned away.

"NO!" Harry heard Riddle screaming. "You may have blinded the Basilisk, boy, but it can still smell you!"

The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Faykan was firing jets of multicolored light at it, trying to distract it long enough for Harry to escape, but Riddle began to attack Faykan. The smaller boy was forced onto the defensive, which allowed the Basilisk to recover from being blinded.

" _Forget that one, your prey is behind you. Smell him out. Kill him!_ " Riddle hissed as he dueled with Faykan.

Harry was ready as the Basilisk turned. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the scarred, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous…

It lunged blindly; Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed against Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands.

The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true. Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.

But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.

Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it was too late. White hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color.

"HARRY!" Faykan screamed. Harry could hear the sounds of running footsteps coming towards him, and someone hefted him into their arms, but it was too difficult to focus. Another shadow moved in front of him.

"He's as good as dead, boy. But Lord Voldemort is merciful… I will let you live, just long enough to see your precious hero fall before me." Riddle laughed. "And only then will I kill you as well…"

But Faykan was murmuring in Harry's ear, completely ignoring Riddle's taunts, a spell weaving through the words that Harry could only half make out in his delirium, " _coia auta n'alaquel, harwa poika_ "

Riddle apparently took no notice of what Faykan was doing, because he continued gloating, "I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time.

I'm in no hurry."

Harry felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning.

"So ends the famous Harry Potter," said Riddle's distant voice. "Down in the Chamber of Secrets, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry... She bought you twelve years of borrowed time ... but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must . . . ."

'If this is dying,' thought Harry, 'it's not so bad.'

Even the pain was leaving him...

But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. Harry gave his head a little shake and there was Faykan, holding his wand over Harry's wound; except that there was no wound anymore.

"Get away, boy," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him… NO! What have you done?"

Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Faykan, and suddenly there was the sound of gagging. Faykan was clutching his throat, unable to breathe.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Riddle roared raising the wand higher, lifting Faykan off the ground; suspending him in midair as the life was slowly strangled out of him.

Rage consumed Harry's mind. His friends were dying and there was nothing he could do. He glared at Riddle, contempt and anger boiling within him, and suddenly his scar burned white hot. His vision clouded in blinding whiteness, and there was some sort of music that he couldn't make out past the pain in his skull.

Riddle started to scream. There was an explosion of sound, and sight returned to Harry's eyes as he spotted the last remnants of Riddle fluttering to the ground.

Faykan collapsed onto the ground, breathing hard with blood trickling from his nose. Harry's wand had also clattered to the ground. Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he'd just traveled miles by Floo powder, but the sensation was fading quickly as he pulled Faykan to his feet, and finally retrieved the sword from the roof of the Basilisk's mouth.

Then there came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.

Harry tried to comfort her, and he saw Faykan kneel by Draco, who still hadn't awoken. Faykan lifted to boy's head and examined the wounds to the back of Draco's head. Finally Faykan set him down and lifted his wand over him. "Draco _lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan_ _galad_." Slowly, Draco retuned to consciousness, groaning in the sudden pain in his head.

"What happened?" Draco said after a moment, "Last thing I remember was following Ginny into Myrtle's bathroom and something hitting me on the head."

"You were taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Draco. You and Ginny; she was being possessed by Tom Riddle, the heir of Slytherin." Faykan turned to Harry, "We really should get them out of here and up to the hospital wing."

"Riddle!" Ginny cried out suddenly, looking around, "Where is he? The last thing I remember is him coming out of the diary."

"It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary as proof. It was blackened and still lightly smoldering. "Riddle's finished. Look, both him and the basilisk." He added, offering a hand to the Gryffindor girl up, "C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here…"

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and… w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"

Faykan led the way out of the Chamber, supporting Draco while Harry helped Ginny, as well as listening to her sob quietly in distress, but otherwise unable to help too much with the emotion turmoil that the girl was facing.

Harry did the only thing he knew he could help with, and urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.

After a few minutes' progress back up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached Harry's ears.

"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!"

He heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through a surprisingly sizable gap the red head had managed to make through the rock fall.

"Ginny!" Ron said in excitement at the sight of his sister, thrusting an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?"

"We'll explain when we get out of here," Faykan said as he eased Draco through the gap.

"But…" Ron started to protest, but Harry cut him off. "Later," he said shortly.

After crossing though the pile of stones, they reached the pipe where they had entered mere minutes later, Draco now walking under his own power while Harry and Ron supported Ginny.

"Um, how are we going to get back up?" Ron asked.

" _Stairs…_ " Harry hissed, purely on a hunch, and indeed, stairs emerged out of the tunnel walls at his command, spiraling back up to Myrtle's bathroom. The ghost goggled at them as they emerged from the tunnel.

"You're alive," she said, looking blankly at Harry.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he replied grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses. Faykan snorted loudly in agreement to the sarcastic responce.

"Where to now?" Draco said, and Faykan took the lead, guiding them directly to Professor McGonagall's office, and barging right in without knocking.

There was a moment of total silence that followed Harry, Faykan, Ron, Draco and Ginny walking through the doorway, each covered in some mixture of muck, slime and blood, which was finally broken only by the scream of Mrs. Weasley as she launched herself from her seat at her daughter, followed closely by her husband.

Harry, however, was looking past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming at them all with pride clearly written in his face, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps of shock at the sight of the students, clutching her chest.

Harry felt himself, Faykan and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasleys tight embrace seconds after she released Ginny.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?" the woman implored.

"I think we'd all like to know that," added Professor McGonagall weakly, still looking like she might have a heart attack right there in front of them.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it what remained of Riddle's diary.

Only then did he start telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence: He told them about hearing the disembodied voice throughout the year; how Hermione had finally realized that he was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how he, Faykan, Draco and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest; that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how they had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him as he paused for breath, "so you found out where the entrance was, breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add, but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"

So Harry, and soon also Faykan once Harry's voice started to grow weak from exhaustion, told them about Riddle, the diary, and about Harry using Faykan's sword to kill the Basilisk while Faykan fending off Riddle's memory.

"Might I examine this sword, Mr. Undol," Dumbledore requested softly, and Faykan unsheathed and presented the weapon to the Headmaster. Dumbledore looked at the blade with great interest, and studied the rune covered hilt. "Mr. Undol, by any chance do you know what these runes on the hilt read?" he asked.

"Certainly," Faykan replied quickly, "they read: _Turgon aran_ _Gondolin_ _tortha, Gar a matha I vegil Glamdring Gud Daedheloth, Dam an Glamhoth._ And it means: Turgon king of Gondolin wields, has and holds the sword Glamdring, Foe of Morgoth's realm, and hammer to the Orcs _._ "

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows in amazement, even while Professor McGonagall looked more shocked than she had since they walked in, "You know how to read and speak the ancient language of the elves, Mr. Undol?" she asked.

"Yes, Professor, I do." Faykan replied humbly. Dumbledore returned Faykan his sword and picked up the blackened diary from Harry, peering keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages. Finally, Dumbledore looked up at the Weasleys, then over to Draco, who was sitting in the background trying to stay awake.

"Miss Weasley and Mr. Malfoy should go up to the hospital wing right away," he said in a firm voice. "This has been a terrible ordeal for them both." He strode over to the door and opened it, "They need bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, his eyes twinkling kindly at Ginny specifically. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice; I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."

Mrs. Weasley led a somewhat more optimistic Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken. Draco turned and left with Ron supporting him. Only as he left did Harry notice how very tired he appeared. Only once he accepted that, did his own body start to feel overwhelmingly sluggish and unresponsive, and slowly he sank onto one of the chairs in the office, feeling like lead weights were holding him down.

"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully, turning to Professor McGonagall, "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter and Undol, shall I?"

"Certainly," Dumbledore replied.

She left, and Harry and Faykan gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore. What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with them? Surely… surely, they weren't about to be punished?

"I seem to remember telling you both as well as Mr. Weasley that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules, said Dumbledore.

Harry opened his mouth in horror.

"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling. "The three of you will receive Special Awards for Services to the School and, let me see, yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."

For a minute, none of them spoke. Then Dumbledore pulled open one of the drawers in Professor McGonagall's desk and took out a quill and a bottle of ink.

"What you need, boys, is some food and a great deal of sleep. I suggest you go down to the feast, while I write to Azkaban; we need our gamekeeper back. And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too," he added thoughtfully. "We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?"

Harry rose, only with Faykan's assistance, and started toward the door. They had only just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall.

Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face. And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.

"Good evening, Lucius," said Dumbledore pleasantly, looking completely unsurprised that the other man was present at this time.

Mr. Malfoy almost knocked Harry and Faykan over as he swept into the room. Dobby went scurrying in after the man, crouching at the hem of his cloak, a look of abject terror on the elf's face.

"So!" Mr. Malfoy said "You've come back. The Governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts."

"Well, you see, Lucius," said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, "the other eleven Governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that both Arthur Weasley's daughter and your son had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place."

Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury.

"My son…" he started, sounding worried, before his voice hardened once more, "so, have you stopped the attacks yet?" he sneered. "Have you caught the culprit?"

"We have," said Dumbledore, with a smile.

"Well?" said Mr. Malfoy sharply. "Who is it?"

"The same person as last time, Lucius," said Dumbledore. "But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary."

He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Mr. Malfoy closely.

"I see..." said Mr. Malfoy slowly to Dumbledore.

"A clever plan," said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring Mr. Malfoy straight in the eye. "Because if Harry here," Mr. Malfoy shot Harry a swift, sharp look, "and his friends Faykan and Ron hadn't discovered this book, why… Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will…"

Mr. Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly masklike.

"And imagine," Dumbledore went on, "what might have happened then... The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pureblood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and killing Muggleborns... Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise..."

Mr. Malfoy forced himself to speak.

"Very fortunate," he said stiffly. Mr. Malfoy turned to Harry again, "I suppose I must thank you for saving the life of my son." He looked through his robes, and then turned to look down at Dobby with a small, nasty grin. "Ah…" he breathed, "I present you with this gift and my thanks…" he said pointing at Dobby. "Dobby, I formally give ownership of you to Harry Potter." He nodded and left quickly afterward, slamming the door behind him, and leaving a very excited and somewhat confused House Elf staring up at Harry.

 _elea naara wanwa : sight burn away_

 _coia auta n'alaquel, harwa poika : life return, wound be clean_

 _lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan_ _galad : hear my voice, come back to the light._

 **Potential Spoiler's Ahead, you have been warned!**

 _Minor tweaks here and there, mainly in the conversation between Faykan, Harry and Tom Riddle, emphasizing the similarities with Faykan and... well himself many years prior, but if anyone hasn't guessed that I don't know what to say. This is also likely the last chapter for a little while that will not be heavily looked over and edited for additional content, as the beginning of year three is heavy with things that I wanted to embellish and sculpt far cleaner than before. even the epilogue, which will come in two weeks for year two underwent a nice addition just to set up year three, so there is lots of new content to come. Many thanks once more, and have a wonderful pair of weeks before the next update._


	25. Y2-Epilogue: Dobby's Master

_Well, it took a bit of time, but we're finally at the end of 2nd year, and what fun there is to come, if I say so myself. relax and enjoy, and for those who read the ending notes, there is finally new content to discuss here, and will be for the near future! ~F_

 **Epilogue**

 **Dobby's Master**

Albus watched for a long moment as the two boys in front of Minerva's desk glanced between each other and the now firmly closed door that separated them from seeing Lucius' departing form. The fact that the Pureblood Lord quickly pounced upon Albus' return was unsurprising, but the fact that he legitimately parted with a precious possession, as House Elves were an expensive and quite prestigious luxury, was incredible. Albus would bet quite a deal that the man was going straight to the Hospital Wing to visit his son, despite his stone cold exterior. Aside from that event, which proved that Lucius Malfoy did indeed have a heart, Albus was more concerned with the strange child before him, who clearly possessed a weapon of great history and lore.

 _Turgon_... _Gondolin_ … _Glamdring_ … _Morgoth_ … none of these names rang any bells in the great mind, and yet the young boy, not quite thirteen years old, said them in their native tongue, and then translated them immediately afterward with a familiarity that rang of long hours spent truly knowing and understanding the meaning of these words.

To be fair, Albus briefly considered that perhaps the boy had devoted himself to this knowledge in order to better identify with his deceased parents, an option that poor Harry was denied by the Durleys, but at the same time it felt to be something even more than that. It was almost a cause that he had undertaken, to remember these long forgotten people and places, a caretaker of the lore of old almost.

"You both may go," he said finally to the pair of them, watching sadly as Harry exited first, followed closely by Faykan. But the blue eyed boy paused in the doorway and sent a look of understanding back to Albus, and gratitude, which puzzled the Headmaster, as he had done little to nothing to deserve thanks from the other boy, aside from granting them awards and House points that he was sure Faykan cared little about.

It had to be that the boy, so mature and knowledgeable for his age, was aware of what the validation meant for Harry, to know that he was trusted to make good judgments, even if he was defying authority to do so. Although in Albus personal opinion, Harry ought to have been placed in neither this circumstance, nor the fiasco with the Stone the previous year. He had not predicted that Voldemort would try so soon to get at Harry, nor that the brilliant children would solve the riddles on their own and try to thwart what they felt to be a grave injustice by one of their own teachers.

He swore to himself that from then on, he would do everything in his power to prevent such things from happening in his school ever again, so long as it was his to run. Never again would he purposely try to use the school as a battleground, or keep things here over the safety of his students. Not when even things beyond his control were trying to creep in to attack Harry, and anyone else that got in their way.

Albus knew that the wards must have been weakened over the time since the last war, as there had been no such threats placed within the school during the entirety of the previous battles against Voldemort, and to counter that he himself would use the Elder Wand to fortify the school how best he could. It was the least he could do to remedy the situation that caused so much grief and pain to his students and their families for two years in a row now.

Suddenly feeling every bit his age, Albus slumped back in his chair, his mind wandering from topic to topic, until recalled the bright and happy words of Faykan Undol from their chat last year, when the boy had just started recovering from the Hospital Wing. The song he sang, while full of power and quite frightening to Albus at the time, had a buoying effect on his old soul, even as a mere memory. He smiled. Perhaps he had been too harsh on the boy at the time, but truly there was great danger in those powerful ancient words, that only the very best and most powerful of Sorcerers ever were to utter, let alone use casually.

But if he truly was grooming himself to be some sort of caretaker of the past, perhaps there was a bright future for the boy after all. Not only could he be a powerful ally for Harry in the war to come, but it had been too long now since Hogwarts had had a History of Magic teacher that taught more than their last partial term's worth of material over and over. Another wonderful pushback by the Ministry and Lucius, but Albus lacked the authority to fight too hard on such a softer target than what was needful in the last few decades.

After the war, he would do everything he could to make the school great again, and setting Faykan Undol on the road to teaching their children the truth of their magical heritage would be near to the top of his list.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry had been to several Hogwarts feasts in the past, but none had been quite like this. Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night. Harry didn't know whether the best bit was Hermione running toward him, screaming: "You solved it! You solved it!"; or Justin hurrying over from the Hufflepuff table to wring his hand and apologize endlessly for suspecting him; or Hagrid turning up at half past three, cuffing Harry, Faykan and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle; or their six hundred points for Gryffindor securing the House Cup for the second year running; or Professor McGonagall standing up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat.

There was one small note of sorrow in the midst of their celebrating, when Dumbledore announcing that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to his untimely and quite accidental death. They held a moment of silence for the man, although Harry couldn't help but feel that the old fraud at least deserved some of what he had gotten. Still, death might have been a bit much.

The rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences: Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled, despite Hermione's complaints, and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor.

Nott was no longer strutting around the school or acting as though he owned the place. On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky. On the other hand, Ginny Weasley was perfectly happy again. Draco was still moody, but it was mainly due to finding out that his father had been behind the attacks. Harry had learned of this from Dobby, who had been more than happy to spill the Malfoys' dirtiest secrets to his new master, starting with Mr. Malfoy's hand in the plot that year.

At first, Harry hadn't had any idea what to do with his new servant, but Faykan helped him by suggesting that he send Dobby to Diagon Alley to get a new uniform that was more becoming of a Potter House Elf than the dirty pillow case that he usually wore. As an afterthought, Harry also asked for Dobby to wait in his room at Privet Drive for him to return during the summer.

The last day of the school year, Collin Creevey finally caught up to Harry and Faykan once again, practically begging them for one picture, and Harry finally consented, on the condition that he and Faykan could get a copy each of it that night. Collin was ecstatic, and together Faykan and Harry stood in the middle of the busy common room for the boy to take the perfect picture. They both even signed his copy for him, which sent the kid skipping away in pure joy.

Later Harry overheard Faykan telling Collin about the black fox that could sometimes be found in the common room, and how it didn't like being picked up or petted hard like a plush toy, and Harry almost burst into laugher at Faykan's attempts to control his frustration at the boy, as Collin didn't understand how Faykan could have known about the fox, since he was never awake at the times that Collin saw it.

All too soon however, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Faykan, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Draco and Ginny got a compartment to themselves. They made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays. They played Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George's Filibuster fireworks, and practiced disarming each other by magic just for the fun of it. Harry was getting very good at that spell.

Eventually, the Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped in King's Cross.

"Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they?" asked Hermione as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. "When they hear what you did this year?"

"Proud?" replied Harry, "Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious…"

"Speaking of them, Harry. Are you ready to brave the muggles for another few weeks before returning to the wizarding world?" Faykan said.

"Do I have to?" Harry whined.

"Unfortunately," Faykan admitted, but then brightened, "Don't worry, I'll pick you up earlier this year, and maybe we'll all congregate at my home for a month or two this summer." Faykan replied cheerfully.

These words kept Harry happy the entire trip back to Privet Drive. Faykan left him on the doorstep and vanished with a loud pop while Harry opened the door. Aunt Petunia ignored him as Harry went up to his room.

Opening the door, Harry was greeted by an excited Dobby, who bowed low to him, "Welcome home, Master Harry Potter, Sir…"

 **To Be Continued…**

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned!**

 _Foremost, massive addition to the beginning with another new Albus section, mulling over the new information he's gleaned from Faykan regarding the ancient artifacts he possesses, on top of what I hope is a clearer picture of just how Albus truly is, a good person who is grasping at straws for a reasonable conclusion to the dreadful business of the war with Voldemort.  
_

 _personally, I've been striving with the rewrite to showcase the characters as I had originally intended, and I think I've gotten closer this go around, but the next two 'books' worth of material will seal the transition more thoroughly I think, especially with the tournament and Albus' slow decent to disliking and trying to twist Faykan to his side. definitely looking toward rewriting the section where albus seeks to kill faykan, as I never really felt that that was in his character or desires to throw away a person that had information and knowledge that he lacked, and wasn't evil._

 _still, there are great additions and changes that I made to the beginning of 3rd year, and yes MORE INCLUSION OF LOTR lore at last, I know many have been waiting for it, and it will be upon us soon. Many thanks for reading thus far, and i'll "see" you next time! ~F_


	26. Y3-Prologue: House Elf Service

_And at last, we arrive at the first book that I was looking forward ever so much to for this rewrite. Yes, the inclusion of the LotR elements will start far stronger than before, and swell until the story diverges in the somewhat-near future. So, please enjoy! ~F_

 **New Player Year 3**

 **Mists of Lies**

 **Prologue**

 **House Elf Service**

The North Sea howled; its waves and the wind crashing against the small outcropping of rock that lay outside the bounds of what Muggle eyes could see, containing the one place on earth closest to their concept of hell.

Within the fortress of dark stone which dominated the little island, one figure that held on dearly to what sanity was afforded him in this place gazed forlornly out the heavily barred window.

Harry would be close to thirteen now, the man thought, even as he shivered from the cold within the prison more than that outside, even as the death rattle of his guards filled the lapses of sound between the crashing waves.

Sirius Black, former Auror and godfather of the young baby boy that he had known for only a scant year, had barely managed to keep himself alive and relatively sane by thinking of Harry, even if the memories of the little baby he had played with, and that of his parents, held no more joy for him.

The Dementors saw to it that no joy or mirth could be reached by the prisoners of their home, only despair and pain. Nevertheless, one thought gave Sirius the strength that he needed to persevere. The fact, unhappy as it was, that he was an innocent man suffering a murderer's fate.

Through sheer will alone, he refused to let go of that thought, but clung to it like a lifeline, knowing that he had to survive, until the Ministry finally decided it was time to actually try him for the crimes that they sorely wanted to believe he had committed.

In the gloom of his cell, Sirius paused mid thought, feeling a small amount of warmth return to him, and turning, he noticed immediately that his ever present guard of two dementors were gone, allow him the barest moments of sane thinking that he had had in nearly twelve years.

But that was not all, there would human voices, real ones and not the maddening screams of his fellow doomed inmates, coming nearer to his cell. Straining his weakened mind to understand, slowly Sirius came to the conclusion that the Ministry was conducting its routine inspection of the prisoners and their 'well-being.'

It was a joke, of course, Sirius thought repulsively, slipping from the high sill that looked out the narrow window and sitting nearer to the bars of his cell, a place he usually stayed as far away from as possible, because of the dementors and their proximity.

Sure enough, there was a light bobbing its way closer down the darkened corridor of the prison, and Sirius could hear a male voice babbling along with a regiment of others.

That alone was strange, as last he knew the Minister of Magic was still Millicent Bagnold, the woman who was more in favor of celebrating the Dark Lord's death than confirming that a proper trial had been held for those who had been apprehended.

But soon enough a little portly man, his grey hair rumpled from the bowler had currently in his hands appeared, and Sirius strained to try and place the name that went with the man's face.

"…Junior Minister Fudge?" he croaked, his voice heavy and worn from disuse, but still enough to attract the attention of the man as he started across the door to Sirius' cell.

"Prisoner ᛈᛉ-390, Sirius Black…" one of the aurors next to the man said, reading the label on the cell.

"I know who he is," Fudge said grimly, staring at Sirius with some mixture of resentment and pity, "I was the first one on the scene when he was captured. Blew up a street full of muggles just to kill one wizard, a former friend I believe it was…"

But Sirius' attention had wandered from the man's face and voice to the paper tucked under the man's arm. Scooting closer to the bars, Sirius pressed his face as flush as he could, looting at the small print in the gloom of wand light, squinting to read the headline, but the angle was too poor.

The man took note of Sirius' action, and after a moment's pause, the paper was pulled from beneath his arm. Sirius made a small noise of protest, before he watched the man toss the paper into the cell alongside him.

"Minister, are you sure that is wise?" one of the guards said, clearly surprised by the actions of the other man.

"This man will rot here for the rest of his life," Fudge replied, moving on slowly, "Just because he's guilty of murder doesn't mean we cannot show some small amounts of mercy here and there…"

The group moved on, but Sirius had clawed at the paper, unfolding it and dissecting every word he could read in the poor lighting from the sky outside. Anything to take his mind off the cold and his memories was welcome. But what he found gave him far more strength and willpower than he had even presumed.

"He's at Hogwarts…" Sirius muttered, looking at the front page picture, even as a white hot rage burst open inside him.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry Potter stared in utter bewilderment at all the changes, even as he was led around his room by the most unusual creature he had ever met. Dobby the house elf, _his_ house elf Harry reminded himself, insisted upon showing him all the cleaning and changes he had made to Harry's room and asking if it was alright for him to do so.

Gone were the rags he had worn while he served his previous masters, the Malfoy family. Now Dobby proudly wore a black and gold tunic and trousers that had the symbol of the Potter family on the shoulder and back.

"Yeah sure, it's fine, really Dobby, it's all just fine," Harry said in response to Dobby's look of utter desperation to please him. "And please, just call me Harry."

"Of course, Master Harry, Sir," Dobby replied, bowing low to Harry for the sixteenth time since Harry had entered his room.

Harry sighed exasperatedly, and looked around his room. Dobby had actually done a really good job with it. The thick layer of dust that had covered the room when Harry left it last year was completely gone, leaving the room almost shining. The wooden writing desk was polished and even repaired, ready for Harry to set his books down and work on his summer homework. The bed sheets were all mended and turned back, and Hedwig's cage was cleaned out with the door open for his owl to reinhabit.

"No Dobby, just Harry…" Harry tried again, but it seemed that Dobby couldn't grasp the concept of Harry just being called Harry; it was always 'Master Harry' or 'Harry, Sir'. Finally Harry just gave up completely, and set his trunk down beside the bed, hoping against hope that this month would pass quickly so he could rejoin his best friends in the wizarding world.

Harry had no idea why he was always left at the Dursleys for at least three weeks every summer; it would be so much easier if his friends Ron or Faykan just took him to their homes for the entire holiday.

Frankly, in combination with his best friend's promise at the end of the previous school year, Harry was quite curious of where Faykan actually lived, since he had made no mentioned that he had stopped living with Arabella Figg, Harry's neighbor and Faykan's closest relative.

His best friend was just like that sometimes however: simply amazing and yet a complete puzzle for him at the same time. Sometimes he would behave just like a normal boy, just like Harry, Ron or Draco, their other friend from Hogwarts, but sometimes he would just change and act as if he was far older than any of them. Harry was also concerned about some stranger events that transpired during the last year.

During the Christmas holiday, they had used Polyjuice potion to sneak into the Slytherin common room and question Theodore Nott about the Chamber of Secrets, but they had gathered very little information regarding it from him.

Instead, the arrogant boy had mentioned that he and several others had noticed how close Faykan was to Harry, and speculated that it might have been _romantic_ in nature. Harry didn't know what to think of this, as he certainly didn't feel that way for his best friend, but he had noticed that Faykan never seemed to be out of his presence, even for the shortest amount of time.

Faykan never tried to engage anything with him, but it was slightly odd to Harry for two people to be that close at almost all times. Harry had wanted to ask Faykan about this several times, but never had a good opportunity with the problems that had plagued the students of Hogwarts last year. ' _Hopefully_ ,' thought Harry as he lay down for the night, ' _Faykan will come get me in about three weeks, and I can ask him then…_ '

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _Oh happy day and the intro is brand sparkly new. Sirius lacked a significant presence in the story, spanning only third year to fifth, so I included a favorite perspective of the canonically undetailed scene regarding how he got the paper form Fudge. Additionally, I expanded a bit on Harry's segment, in order to better elabortate how Dobby was fitting in... or not, with he Dursley household._

 _ _Happy fun times in LotR related things starts off next chapter, YAY!__

 _ _have fun till then, don't do things I would do... ~F__


	27. Y3-C1: In the House of Undol

_And suddenly the entire dynamic of chapter size changes at last to my current model of 6-7k per chapter, barring prologues, hurray! Many thanks to those who reviewed, I appreciate your words very much. At long last the LotR influences will now begin to make themselves apparent, and I hope that they are as well accepted in their newer form as they were originally. ~F_

 **Chapter One**

 **In the House of Undol**

Much to Harry's surprise, Faykan came to get him far earlier than he had expected. Only a week into the summer holidays, Harry was reading one evening from his ' _A History of Magic_ ,' text for more information about witch burning in the fourteenth century, the subject of the corresponding class' essay one night, when the now-familiar cracking sound of Dobby apparating heralded the little elf's arrival behind him.

"Master Harry, sir, your friend Mr. Undol is here to see you, sir," the elf said just seconds before the shout of Vernon Dursley was heard from below, rudely calling him downstairs.

The Dursleys had not been too thrilled about finding Dobby in their house. Aunt Petunia had almost attacked the House Elf when he first appeared at the table to serve Harry's meal on the first day back for the summer.

Uncle Vernon had tried to force Harry to keep Dobby away from them, but it to very little avail, as Dobby only did what Harry asked of him in completely strange and twisted ways. Since Harry asked Dobby to avoid his family, Dobby took to moving invisible throughout the house, which only unnerved the Dursleys more when they found out.

But at the same time he couldn't order Dobby to just do nothing, as that made the House Elf terribly depressed, so he had inevitably compromised that Dobby would help Harry with his chores, and clean the house to his heart's delight when the Dursleys were not home.

Harry went downstairs, only to find Faykan standing in the entryway, waiting for him, wearing robes of a sea-blue color which, Harry noticed, made his bright eyes even more pronounced. His best friend had a smug grin on his face, like in response to the looks of contempt and fear being sent at him from the three Dursleys.

"Hello, Harry," Faykan said as Harry descended the last step, "Hope you haven't been too bored while I was away?"

"Not really," Harry responded "just wrapping up that last of the summer work." That caused his friend's smile to widen.

"Excellent," Faykan announced, clapping his hands together once excitedly, "now we'll have the rest of the summer to do as we please."

Harry raised his eyebrows, "We're leaving so soon?" he asked, confused.

"Yes, that is unless you'd rather stay of course," Faykan said in all seriousness.

"No way!" Harry said, punching his friend in the arm for being joked with.

"Good," Faykan replied, rubbing the spot idly as he spoke, "then have Dobby pack you things. You'll only need your wand for the moment, as I want to give you the scenic route to my home."

Harry dashed back upstairs and asked Dobby politely to pack up his things, while he grabbed his wand. He turned to rejoin Faykan, and almost ran into his friend as he entered his room.

"Almost forgot," Faykan continued, as if their conversation hadn't been interrupted, and addressed the House Elf. "Dobby, you'll take Harry's things to this location." He showed Dobby a piece of parchment. The house elf studied it for a second, and then nodded affirmatively.

"Well, shall we Harry?" Faykan finally said, even as Dobby ran around the room, levitating and shrinking all of Harry belongings so they would fit comfortably into his trunk. Harry smiled as he followed his best friend back down the stairs, out the front door and down the moonlit street of Private Drive.

As they made their way down the street, Harry noticed that despite the few inches he had grown the last year, Faykan had finally caught up to him in height, and in fact was about half an inch taller than him. Harry took the time they spent walking in silence to study the changes in his friend. Not only had Faykan grown in height, but he had let his hair grow out slightly, and wore it pulled back and tied with a silver ribbon. Harry noticed that Faykan was still as thin as him, but he paid it little mind, as he considered that normal for most boys their age.

They had just turned down to Magnolia Crescent when Harry felt a funny prickling on the back of his neck; it almost felt as if they were being watched. Faykan had paused in searching for wherever he was leading Harry, and was looking around, frowning at the dimly lit street. They pulled out their wands together and lit them with a _lumos_ spell.

Harry held is wand high, looking for the source of their discomfort, when he heard the soft padding of feet behind him. He whirled, and saw in the sudden wand light a large black dog hiding in the shadows of a back alleyway.

"Ah, just a dog," Faykan said, although even Harry could tell that his friend was just as surprised as he was. Turning to Harry, Faykan fished something out of his robe pocket and offered him the same parchment he had shown Dobby. "Read this," he said.

Harry took the parchment and read: ' _The Treegarth of Orthanc is the home of Faykan Undol._ '

Looking up at his friend in confusion, Harry raised an eyebrow, "What's this rubbish?" he asked, giving the parchment back to Faykan.

"You'll see…" Faykan said as he suddenly grabbed Harry arm and spun on his heel. The sensation for Harry was completely unexpected; like being squeezed through a tube backwards. Once the crushing sensation ended, Harry landed hard, and would have fallen over if Faykan hadn't held onto him for support.

Blinking slightly, Harry looked around to see where they were. He couldn't recognize anything, so Harry felt it safe to presume they were not in Little Whinging anymore. He and Faykan were standing in a small forest clearing, surrounded by the strangest looking, and oldest, trees Harry had ever seen. They made the ones in the forbidden forest outside Hogwarts seem tiny and insignificant. The air was close and quite warm, even for July. "Welcome to my home Harry," Faykan said and Harry turned to see him pointing westward where, over the lines of trees, Harry could barely make out a large, dark, stone tower in the shimmering moonlight.

Harry made sure to keep close to Faykan as they made their way through the dark and dense foliage toward the tower, as Harry kept hearing strange sounds echoing through the forest: grinding and crunching and many other sounds that Harry couldn't identify. After a particularly loud groan-like echo sounded, Harry cried out in surprise, "What was that?!"

Faykan paused, listening. After a moment or two, he ushered Harry ahead and quickened their pace, "Keep moving Harry, something is amiss in the forest tonight."

Harry was both worried and confused during the rest of their walk to the large tower. Faykan was silent and kept stopping suddenly when loud noises were heard in the forest, but they saw nothing. Fifteen minutes later, they entered a large clearing directly surrounding the quite massive tower.

The black stone shone in the moonlight, rising some five hundred feet into the sky. The sides were sheer, and craning his neck, Harry could see it ending in four large points at the very top.

Faykan mounted the steps up to the large double doors two at a time, Harry right behind him. He watched with interest as Faykan pulled out two solid black keys and slid them into the double lock in the center of the doors, causing them to grind slowly open.

The inside revealed a torch-lit circular chamber with several doors spaced around the walls. Harry took his time to glance around the chamber. The entire room was made of the same black stone as the outside of the tower, polished and carved in an artistic form that, to Harry, seemed far older than even the architecture of Hogwarts.

The light sources came from several large orb-like braziers posted on each side of the five double doors that fanned around the room, each burning happily with flames that warmed and lit the chamber quite well. Each pair of doors had the same design of a faded single white hand painted onto the iron-bound wood.

Faykan and Harry entered, and there were a pair of loud cracks signaling the arrival of two house elves, both wearing black robes emblazoned with the same white hand symbol on the chest. They bowed lowly to Faykan, "Welcome back, Master Faykan," they said in unison.

" _Mae govannen,_ _Tua_ , _Mool_ ,"Faykan said, nodding to them both, then gesturing to Harry and continuing in English, "This is Harry Potter; I would like you both to serve and assist him as you would me." The elves nodded and bowed low to Harry before popping out of sight once again.

"If you need anything Harry, feel free to call for either of them." Faykan said without turning to Harry, rather proceeding across the room at a casual pace, "Now, let me lead you to your guest room. There is something that I need to attend to, and it is late, so you might as well settle in for the night and leave questions and exploration for tomorrow."

Leading him swiftly through the main room, Faykan entered a large side room from the main chamber, which had a massive staircase that ascended upward around the perimeter of the square chamber, rising many stories up. How they managed to climb all those stairs, Harry wasn't sure, but eventually they stopped at a particular set of identical doors to all the others, and entered another chamber, far smaller than the one far below them. Directly across from the main doors that he and Faykan entered in from was a large throne-like seat, coated in the moonlight that came from a high window.

However, the most curious feature in this room was the small pillar in the exact center of the room, raised about four or five feet off the floor. Upon it, sitting at eye level to Harry and Faykan was a black cloth covering some sort of spherical object that Harry wasn't sure was.

But Faykan led Harry through the room without a word of mention regarding the object within and up another set of rather long stairs, bypassing several more landings and finally turning down a long corridor that ended in three more pairs of double doors.

Faykan indicated the doorway on the right, "That is the main guest chamber."

He then pointed at the right doors, "This is my room, feel free to enter if you need me for anything, and that," and nodding at the last pair of doors directly ahead, he added, "leads to the terrace overlooking the forest. We're a good three hundred feet up so the view is pretty amazing, even if you can't see too much at this time of night."

Harry nodded, suddenly feeling very tired; the adrenaline from the forest was wearing off after the long climb up many, many stairs. He pushed open the right hand doors and walked into a well-lit study with a large black writing desk and several chairs. In the back was a smaller door that led to the actual bedroom, which had a large four-poster feather bed that reminded Harry somewhat of the dormitory beds at Hogwarts, except that this one much larger, and stuck to the theme of black and white. Off to the side was a bathroom, complete with a walk in shower, sink and full body mirror. Thankfully, Dobby had already brought all of Harry's possessions, so he quickly changed into a pair of his pajamas and slid into the soft linen sheets of the bed. He fell asleep immediately as his head hit the pillow.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus Dumbledore sat in his study, pondering over a book he had recently acquired from the depths of the great school regarding the deeper aspects of the application of Ancient Runes. He had hoped to use the knowledge in order to strengthen the wards of the school over this summer, motivated even more than before by the breakout of Sirius Black, and the inevitable coming of Dementors to Hogwarts the next school year. The Minister might be thinking that it would protect Harry specifically, but anyone with more sense and less pride would realize that this would be putting far more in danger with that action.

However, he was startled out of further thought regarding the school as one of his many silver instruments started to flash and whir. A quick glance at his shelf of his various devices told Albus quickly that Harry Potter had left Little Whinging.

Dumbledore rose quickly, the book completely forgotten, and strode to observe the movements of the instrument. It should have been able to pinpoint wherever Harry was taken and display that information for Albus to see, but it continued to spin in confusion, seeking and not finding the boy.

Wherever Harry had gone, it was shrouded by magic from anyone looking for it, either having been made unplottable or residing under a Fidelius Charm, if not both. However, even then, the tracker should have been able to pinpoint a general area that the boy was, as it did when he was whisked away to the Burrow the previous summer. Yet the spindle continued to turn, unable to find any trace of Harry's magical signature in its exceedingly long range.

Albus didn't like this new development; Harry's disappearance would weigh heavily on his mind, on top of everything else. The boy should have stayed at least three weeks at the Dursleys to ensure that the blood wards were at their strongest for the rest of the year. The horrible prospect could easily be that Sirius had already gotten to Harry, but Albus was highly doubtful that that could be the case, as the man would have been without a wand, unless he took Harry's…

Worried now, Albus ran across the room to the fireplace, and flooed for Severus, waiting impatiently as the Potion Master stepped through, looking as confused as Albus felt.

"Harry is gone from Little Winging, Severus." Albus said quickly, showing Severus the silver tracker that was keyed to Harry's magical signature.

Severus studied the instrument for a short time, and finally glanced back at Albus, "How can this be? Could it have been Black? He has no way of traveling magically or else both we and the Ministry would have been alerted…" Severus grew thoughtful for a moment, pondering the quandary.

"Unless," the Potions Master said at last, "Undol… Undol could have taken Harry; it's the only way Harry would have gone willingly. Undol has hidden him away from us, whether knowingly or not though, I cannot say…"

Albus pondered his friend's words. If indeed young Faykan had spirited Harry away from his watchful gaze, then the other boy might prove to be far more dangerous than he had suspected. Albus had allowed the young Undol boy to be close to Harry, hoping that he could use the boys' apparent friendship and brotherly love for each other to further influence them against Voldemort when the time came. To help mold Harry into a perfect weapon to use against Voldemort, but this… hopeful it was just a mistake unfortunately occurring at the worst possible time, or else Faykan was far wiser than they gave the lad credit for.

Either way, Albus needed to find a way to tighten his grip on the free spirited boys, or they world would suffer for it. Harry was safest at the Dursleys until the Blood wards were charged, and there was nowhere else on the planet that ought to be for that time.

Yet, thinking about the other black-haired boy, Albus remember clearly the words that he had snatched from Faykan's mind only the previous year: ' _The sleeper must be awakened, or the world will fall._ '

Albus realized the meaning with a start. Undol must have his own plans for Harry, and had determined that the boy was this sleeper to be awakened, and this act was the first in a series of undermining efforts to turn the boy to his agenda. So it would seem that Faykan would fight against Albus just a readily as Voldemort over the future of the Wizarding World. Unfortunate indeed…

"You must find them, Severus," Albus said slowly, mind already working on how to curb the young man who thought himself wiser than the defeater of Grindlewald, "Before the school year begins if you can. Otherwise we need to formulate a plan against Undol and his machinations. For the greater good, Harry must fulfill the prophecy…"

"Honestly Albus," Severus complained, "Now you're making me look after these boys like a nursemaid. Isn't it bad enough that I must teach the brats as well as spy on the Dark Lord for you?"

"Severus…." Albus repeated, showing that it was not a request. The Potion Master sighed heavily, and nodded.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry awoke to the pleasant warmth of morning sunlight pouring from the small window in his room. He sat up, stretching his arms and shoulders before grabbing his glasses from the bedside table.

Harry had just had the best night of sleep he could remember in a long time, even compared to those at Hogwarts. After a refreshing shower, Harry walking back into the bedroom wrapped in a luxurious towel. Dobby, or one of Faykan's house elves, must have known he had awoken, because a set of his day robes were laid out for him on the corner of the bed.

The fact that it was his only set in emerald green came as no surprise to Harry. Faykan had been the one to place the order for his non school robes for the last two years during their trips to Diagon Alley, and had made sure that they were specifically tailored for Harry to bring out his eyes.

Shaking his head slightly at the amusing memory, Harry pulled the clothing on and stepped out into the hallway, looking around at the corridor of various bedrooms in the early morning light. The doors on his right were open, leading to the large balcony, and the smell of food was wafting down the corridor from there.

Following his stomach, Harry stepped through the open doors, and gasped. The view was amazing, better than even Faykan had given it credit for. Harry could see over the tops of trees in all directions for a several miles, breaking off to long green plains one way and rising up into large snowcapped mountains the other.

Harry's stomach growled just then, bringing his attention back to his immediate vicinity. There were two chairs positioned on either end of a small table piled high with eggs, bacon, and sausages. Two goblets sat next to a pitcher of clear water. As Harry sat down one of Faykan's elves apparated nearby, and immediately started piling food into a plate for Harry, as well as filling one of the goblets with water.

"Um, where's Faykan?" Harry asked hesitantly. He still didn't know how to address house elves very well.

"Master is taking a walk in the forest Harry, Sir." The elf replied formally, pushing the plate towards Harry, "Master asked _Tua_ to make sure Harry Sir, is being fed and clothed before he returned so they could spend the day together." _Tua_ added with a sheepish grin. Clearly the small creature was somewhat pleased that she didn't have to take care of dressing Harry as well as feeding him. Even these creatures could be embarrassed apparently.

"Well, thanks," Harry said, picking up his utensils and starting to cut into the sausages. The elf simply smiled and disapparated away, leaving Harry to his food and his thoughts. The food reminded Harry of the feasts at Hogwarts, and he guessed that there might be house elves that cooked at the school as well, which when he thought about it, made complete sense, seeing as they had so many people to feed multiple times a day.

By the time Harry was finishing his second plate of food, as _Tua_ came back and refilled it after he finished the first time; he spotted movement on the edge of the forest.

Peering down, Harry saw the small figure of Faykan making his way slowly through the gaps in the trees. He seemed to be taking his time, and kept turning as if talking with someone else, but Harry couldn't see anyone with Faykan. When Faykan made it to the edge of the tree line, he looked up at the tower, saw Harry on the balcony, and lifted his hand in greeting. Harry waved in return, and watched as Faykan turned back toward the forest for a few extra seconds, and finally made his way into the tower.

"Morning Harry," Faykan said sometime later as he walked out onto the balcony and snatched a piece of bacon from Harry's third plate, popping it into his mouth.

"Morning," Harry replied, smiling as he picked up his goblet of water and took a long drink. The flavor was unlike anything he had ever had before, and Harry paused and pulled the cup away from his face, looking at the water in surprise. He could have sworn that it had an earthy-rich taste, but he couldn't see anything in the water that could have changed the flavor.

Glancing up at Faykan, Harry saw that his friend was watching him closely while eating through his own plate of eggs, "It's not poisonous, if you're wondering," he said teasingly after swallowing his current mouthful. Harry stuck out his tongue in reply, and took another long swallow of the water, relishing the cool and surprisingly filling drink.

Together they just sat there for a long while, long after their meal was concluded and _Tua_ came to collect the leftovers and dished. Harry watched the wind as it played out over the treetops, while Faykan seemed to be deep in thought.

Harry was about to ask what the other boy had planned for them to do, when Faykan suddenly stood, departing for a few minutes, before returning with a genuine hand-held harp. Without even a word of explanation, Faykan strummed the instrument once, testing it for tune, and sat back down, looking out over the trees as he began to play.

The music was haunting in its beauty, Faykan's fingers dancing across the strings for several long moments before the boy's voice added to the mixture, singing in the language that Harry had no hope of understanding, but nevertheless appreciated the noble bearing that the language presented.

" _A Elbereth Gilthoniel, silivren peena míriel, o menal aglar elenath_!" the song rose gently, as though addressing some far away person or being, wafting across the tress and echoing in the wind.

" _Na-chaered palan-díriel, o galadhremmin ennorath, Fanuilos_ ," the tune dipped, seeing to grow earthy itself, but not in a dirty or muddied way, and Harry had some impression of the land itself within the tones, even if he couldn't understand the words.

" _le linnathon nef aear, sí nef aearon_!" If Harry had thought that the song was high before, it paled as the pitch seemed to spike, as thought seeming to pierce even the sky toward the clouds far above them.

" _A Elbereth Glithoniel, o menel palan-díriel,_ " Harry recognized the sounds of the song repeating a small section, and if he were to guess, he'd have said it was a name of some sort, perhaps the addressee of the song.

" _Le nallon sí di'nguruthos_!" And somehow, the song so full of life nad happiness took a turn toward sadness and grief, evoking such emotion that Harry wasn't sure where the almost mourning thoughts arose from.

" _A tiro nin, Fanuilos_!" and the song ended, drifting away like a plea on the wind, even as Faykan placed a hand against the strings to silence them, looking out across the wide lands that his home was situated near, looking far older and more weary than Harry had imagined that anyone could possibly be.

Harry was about ask what the words had meant, but just then a large brown barn owl came soaring over the forest toward where the two boys sat, landed on the handrail on the balcony, and extended a newspaper in its beak to Faykan, who took it and produced a Knut from his robes for the tiny pouch attached to the bird's leg. Faykan unfolded the paper, and sighed audibly, finally tossing it aside, onto the table in favor of returning his harp from whence it had come. Harry leaned over to read the top headline:

 _ **BLACK STILL AT LARGE**_

' _Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today._

 _"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."_

 _Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis._

 _"Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it-who'd believe him if he did?"_

 _While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.'_

Harry looked into the shadowed eyes of Sirius Black, the only part of the sunken face that seemed alive. Harry had never met a vampire, but he had seen pictures of them in his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, and Black, with his waxy white skin, looked just like one.

"He murdered thirteen people?" Harry asked, sitting up and looking to Faykan, who had just returned from within the tower.

"So the Ministry says at least…" Faykan replied, looking troubled. "But the thing they don't bother mentioning, Harry, is that they sent Black straight to Azkaban without a trial, so he could possibly be innocent. Not that they'll ever change their mind about it…" He sighed again, a deep sorrowful sound, and finally turned to Harry, a small smile on his face.

"But enough about the Ministry and Sirius Black, we've got almost two months of activity to plan out. So, what would you like to do first?"

Harry had no idea what there even was to do, "Um, maybe you could start by showing me around?" he ventured tentatively.

"Of course," Faykan said, jumping to his feet, and pulling Harry to his feet, the pair of boys set off down the twists of the tower, exploring it from the kitchens and potion lab in the bottom basement, all the way up through the many guest rooms and studies and museums, to the flat platform on the roof that was set between the four spike-like mounts.

Faykan there took the time to point out the major landmarks and places around the tower grounds that he said Harry might find interesting, namely, a large river about a mile southward that he called 'The Isen,' and the wide plains beyond it that was call the Westford, which Harry found strange, as they traveled further east of where the tower stood.

"How would we get over there, Fay?" Harry asked, as he was rather interested on where they actually were, and was eager to go traveling around the area.

"We ride of course…" Faykan said absently, as if Harry ought to have guessed the answer already.

"Ride?" Harry said, choking. He had never even seen a horse in person before in his life, let alone actually ridden one. Faykan turned to him, frowning slightly as he realized this.

"Well, unless you'd rather walk the entire distance…" he said, taking Harry by the arm and slowly pulling him back toward the stairs that led back into the tower, "don't worry, I'll teach you how to ride, and the horses here are very gentle with new riders."

As Faykan and Harry walked down to the forest edge, Harry wondering the whole time where the horses they were going to ride even were, as he did not see any sort of stables from their vantage point on the tower. Personally, he was hoping that Faykan had been teasing him, as Harry was terrified of having to ride, positively sure he was going to fall off and be injured or else make a fool of himself.

He started when Faykan let out a piercing whistle, and echoing out from the trees a responding whinny came. Harry turned toward the edge of the forest, just in time to see two majestic horses emerge. They were the most amazing animals he had ever seen this close. They were large; one having a black-grey coat with white legs and the other was white with a dark colored face.

Faykan walked forward and patted the black horse's head and murmuring soothing words in its ears as it leaned down to nuzzle him. Harry wanted to edge away, nervous at having to sit on top of such a large creature, when he felt a nose nudge the side of his head. Harry jumped, spinning around to find that the black-faced horse had snuck around behind him, and was looking at him with its large brown eyes, almost reassuringly. The horse nudged him again, before slowly trotting over to a bent tree that Harry figured he could use to climb up to the same level as the horse's back.

"You better go over to her," Faykan said, "Arstafas will keep pestering you until you follow her instructions." Harry turned to see his best friend already mounted on the black horse. "Don't worry," Faykan urged, "the Mearas are very gentle and intelligent, isn't that right Cáfscipe?" he added, patting his steed between the ears, which twitched in an affectionate way as he touched them.

Not convinced, but seeing no way out of this, Harry slowly walked over to the tree and walked halfway up it, until his waist was level with Arstafas' back. The horse then edged over until she was right next to Harry, allowing him to swing a leg over her and ease his weight onto her back.

Arstafas, seeming to sense Harry's agitation at being so far off the ground, edged away gently from the tree, and walked slowly to where Faykan waited atop Cáfscipe. Harry caught Faykan watching his progress with a smirk, and quickly focused on staying on the horse, trying to match the bouncing gait as Arstafas trotted after Faykan's mount into the forest.

"You ready to quicken our pace, Harry?" Faykan called back to him after a short time. Harry was most definitely not ready, and tightened his hold on his horse's mane, leaning forward slightly to ease the pressure on his lower body as the she quickened her pace. Soon, Harry found a pattern in the movements of the body beneath him and finally was able to stop his entire body bouncing with every step Arstafas took.

Almost a half hour later, Harry could see the trees thinning out as he and Faykan exited the forest and came to the banks of a wide lazy river. Arstafas edged up beside Faykan's horse, and Harry could see Faykan smiling at his progress of learning to ride.

Faykan slid off Cáfscipe and helped Harry dismount as well. "Welcome to the fords of Isen, Harry." Faykan said waving his arms wide to indicate the river. Harry glanced around at the wide expanse and saw Faykan grin at him again, before he started to pull his robe off over his head. Faykan stripped down to his pants and, with another quick glance at Harry, dove headfirst into the water, which clearly was deeper than its name implied. He resurfaced moments later, tossing the hair out of his face.

Faykan swam backward a few strokes, deeper into the river and called out, "Come on Harry, the water is great." Harry sighed, knowing that telling Faykan that he couldn't swim would not be a good enough excuse, and pulled his clothes off. Instead of diving in like Faykan however, Harry waded slowly into the river, becoming accustomed to the temperature of the water gradually.

Harry was certain that Faykan was watching him while he attempted to swim a few strokes, and knew he was going about it completely wrong when Faykan swam over to help. "Here, let's try this," Faykan said as he placed his hands under Harry's chest and stomach, supporting Harry's body with his arms and setting him horizontally at the top of the water so that Harry could practice the correct arm and leg movements with Faykan's verbal coaching.

Nearly an hour of practice later, Harry had finally managed to learn the proper technique and was able to swim on his own. He and Faykan swam side by side for several lengths, Faykan giving Harry final bits of instruction when they heard the distinctive crack of apparition and turned to see both of Faykan's elves and Dobby waiting for them on the bank near their clothes.

The two boys waded out of the river just as the three house elves were setting out a large blanket on the sunlit grass. Dobby handed Harry a large towel to dry himself while Faykan simply cast a wandless drying charm on himself. Faykan then spoke a long quick stream of elvish and both of his robed elves vanished with a pair of loud cracks, only to reappear moments later carrying a large basket of food between them.

"Could anyone learn to speak like that?" Harry asked, finally thinking he might get to ask some of the many burning questions he had for Faykan as he dried his hair.

"Of course," Faykan answered, "Are you asking for me to teach you?"

"I don't know," Harry replied playfully, "Are you offering?"

Faykan smiled as he bit into a sandwich that the elves had brought. He chewed thoughtfully for a bit, swallowed and finally said, "Sure, but not just yet. Let's wait till it's closer to your birthday."

Harry nodded and took a sandwich for himself from the wonderful lunch that the house elves had prepared for them. This allowed him to gather his thoughts for what he wanted to ask his best friend, but there so many things that he wasn't sure where to start.

After drinking some more of the rich, earth tasting water, he finally settled on at least one important question. "So, Fay," he started, hesitant to actually get the words out.

Faykan had already laid back on the warm grass, and opened one eye to look at him from his relaxed position, "Hmm?" he responded.

"What is all of this?" Harry asked, gesturing around the forest and river around then, but implying the tower, "Why do you live here of all places? Weren't you living with Ms. Figg?"

"Ah, yes, that…" Faykan said, sounding as though he had hoped that those details would have been forgotten. "I was just living with her until I was old enough to take my inheritance from my parent's will… which includes the tower and all the land round about…"

"Oh…" Harry replied, immediately regretting asking at all. He knew that Faykan's parents were dead, just as his were, and it wasn't a topic that he wished to pry too far into.

As though sensing his disquiet, Faykan continued, "It feels good to finally be back here, at the place my family has protected for generations, preserving the museums and relics for countless ages of the earth."

"Relics of what?" Harry mused aloud, his interest piqued.

"A History that time has all but forgotten…" Faykan said. "My family are the caretakers of this place, and I will continue in the tradition until it is time for me to pass it on as well. It's good for me, I think, to be around the things that they prized so very much."

Harry grew quiet again, thinking of his own parents, and the few items and memories that he had regarding them. The cloak that was his fathers of course, as well as the picture album that Hagrid had given him two years ago was among the only items he had. Even the memory of seeing his family in the Mirror of Erised was a fond one, but only memories nonetheless.

After they had finished, the house elves had whisked away the remains of food and the blanket, and Faykan and Harry rode back to the tower together on Cáfscipe, as Arstafas had wandered off somewhere into the forest and did not return.

They then spent the rest of the day, and much time for the next several days afterward practicing magical dueling, as Faykan told Harry that they could use magic freely in and around his house without the Ministry ever being the wise, as they were shielded by powerful defensive magic that blocked all traces that Faykan himself did not permit from entering.

Faykan also started teaching Harry the basics of sword combat, allowing him to borrow one of the many bladed weapons that were housed in his several drawing rooms. Harry had been nervous at first, but under careful prompting from Faykan, he had selected a light one-handed sword to use, which Faykan said was called _H_ _adhafang_ , and was of ancient elvish make, very similar to his own _Glamdring_.

Harry also spent a lot of time in the tower's library, pouring over all the books he could read, since there were many that were written in languages that he could not recognize. Faykan also took to reading some of these other books to Harry, on his request, and Harry enjoyed hearing the tales of the past ages. Professor Binns' lessons had never gone earlier than the middle ages, therefore all this knowledge was new and very exciting, even more so because Faykan was a very good story teller.

Among the various tales that he listened two, Harry felt drawn primarily to the one that Faykan called the Lay of Eärendil, also known as the mariner. There were many parallels that Harry felt between himself and the ancient man, their loss of parentage at a young age, being thrust into the unknown, among many other trials that he was facing and the ancient hero had faced.

But his absolute favorite part was the tale of how Eärendil took one of the ancient jewels, the Silmaril, into the heavens aboard his ship Vingilot, where it became the star Gil-Estel, which was honored with the name of the great man. Remembering what Faykan had told him the previous year, some nights he would recall the story in his mind, while pondering over the Phial that he had received, the light within sparkling like a star that it was said to reflect the light of.

The way Faykan spoke of these people however, Harry could tell that his best friend knew far more than the books had to tell, as he would add his own details, possibly embellishments for Harry's sake, but he wasn't so sure. There was a confidence and certainty that Faykan possessed that ventured no room for doubt in his additions to the tales, and he went to great lengths to explain the pedigrees of the people, how Noble Eärendil had descended from the greatest of the houses of Men and Elves.

But if anything, Faykan seemed more fascinated with Elwing, the wife of Eärendil, who the granddaughter of Beren and Lúthien, the great heroes of the First Age, who each came from even greater forebears, Beren from the legendary house of Bëor, while Lúthien was the daughter of a king of the elves and a Maia, which as far as Harry could understand, was some sort of angelic being beyond the understanding of mortals of the present days.

Somehow, even with the great amount of detail that Faykan told the stories with, Harry still felt that there was even more that his friend was withholding from him, not that he had any sort of proof that that was the case.

 _Mae govannen,_ _Tua_ , _Mool : Greetings, Helper, Servant_

 _A Elbereth Gilthoniel, silivren peena míriel, o menal aglar elenath_! : O Elbereth Glithoniel (Starkindler), white-glittering, slanting down sparkling like a jewel, the glory of the starry host!

 _Na-chaered palan-díriel, o galadhremmin ennorath, Fanuilos_ , : Having gazed far away, from the tree-woven lands of Middle-earth, to thee, Everwhite,

 _le linnathon nef aear, sí nef aearon_! : I will sing, on this side of the Sea, here on this side of the Ocean.

 _A Elbereth Glithoniel, o menel palan-díriel,_ : O Elbereth Glithoniel (Starkindler), from heaven gazing afar,

 _Le nallon sí di'nguruthos_! : to thee I cry now beneath the shadow of death!

 _A tiro nin, Fanuilos_! : O look towards me, Everwhite!

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _So, initially I had thought to changed the names of Faykan's House Elves, as they seemed rather uninspired and dull, but I realized that that was the nature of House Elf names, so it actually fit better that way. I did however change the names of the horses to actual elven names for Maras, which the fun fact is that they are supposed to be descended from Shadowfax, or some other of the lords of horses._

 _I added more detail on the structure of Orthanc, as I felt that I had oversimplified it the first go around, and did not give enough detail to the sheer size of the tower._

 _ _NEW DUMBLEDORE SECTION! well, not really... this was actually the first official one, after the small snippet in his office in book 2, and the start of actually writing from his perspective, but I did expand on it a fair amount, connecting it back to the previous sections and his line of actually liking Faykan, and only now starting to wonder if he might be a threat to their safety with his control over Harry.__

 _ _Added in another poem of Tolkien, which fits with Faykan's proclivity for song. Also, finally Harry starts asking Faykan questions about himself, starting with Ms. Figg. and leading into Faykan's falsified life, pre-reveal.__

 _ _Great things are happening, thanks for reading! see you next time! ~F__


	28. Y3-C2: Shadows of the Past

_Many thanks to those who reviewed the previous chapter, it was a welcome reception for the chapter, and the changes that had been made. A great thing has occurred regarding this series, but I shall not drop too many hints regarding it just yet. for the time being, I bid you all enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Two**

 **Shadows of the Past**

Severus Snape cursed Undol's and Potter's names for about the hundredth time as he stormed up to the door of number four Privet Drive.

He had spent the last few days looking for the two boys, starting at the Burrow, and slowly expanding to Diagon Alley, Hogsmead, and several other wizarding locations in and around London. He finally had decided to simply ask Harry's relatives if they knew where their nephew had gone, even though he doubted that they knew where their pampered little prince of a nephew had been whisked away to. His secondary reasoning for coming here was to find some of Potter's magical signature so he could try and follow it directly.

Petunia Dursley opened the door and narrowed her eyes at the Potions Master, scrutinizing the man's appearance. Severus had decided to forgo wearing his black wizarding robes in favor of a simple, black, pinstripe suit. Petunia studied Severus' face for a moment, and finally widened her eyes in recognition, "You!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, me…" Severus replied coldly. She moved to slam the door in his face, but Severus blocked it with a well placed foot, "the only reason I am here Petunia, is to ask the whereabouts of your nephew, Harry Potter."

Petunia's face blanched for a moment, "He's not here. His freak of a friend, De Vries, took him away somewhere, and good riddance, another lovely summer without that despicable child underfoot." She said scathingly, struggling to close the door on Severus' foot.

Severus was surprised at the amount of venom that the woman had for her own flesh and blood. It shattered every thought that he had once held regarding Potter's family life, as the memory returned full force of how cruel Petunia had become over the years.

Still, he sighed, as obviously Undol had used a false name for these Muggles just for this purpose, to throw off anyone who might try to follow him and Potter if they took off out of the blue. "Then kindly permit me to see Mr. Potter's room for a few moments, and then I will gladly disappear as quickly as I have arrived," he said snidely, knowing that any sort of calm collective reasoning wouldn't work on this woman, but only fear and anger.

She glared at him for a moment longer, then finally opened the door and allowed Severus to enter. She pointed up the stairs to the smallest bedroom, watching him the entire was as he quickly ascended them and entered the room. The room was essentially bare, except for the furniture. It was almost as if Potter carried all his worldly possessions with him. That only reinforced the new narrative of how Potter lived that was steadily forming in Severus' mind.

Returning to the primary reason that he was here, Severus held his wand aloft and muttered, " _Ostendo sum veneficus vestigium_."

Slowly, soft colors representing different magical signatures lifted from all over the room. Most prominent were emerald green, deep azure, and bright gold. The gold was contained to the room, so it must have been the magic of the house elf that Mr. Potter had acquired at the end of his second year, which meant that the other two colors had to belong to Potter and Undol respectively.

The twin trails of colored light washed around the room, and Severus followed them, being lead down the stairs and out of the house. Petunia all but slammed the door behind him as Severus left, but he paid her no mind, focusing only on following the twin trails of magic.

They lead him down the street and around the small muggle town for nearly fifteen minutes, until they simply stopped in the middle of a deserted section of the street, near an alleyway. Apparently they had used some means of long distance travel from that point; a Portkey or apparition perhaps, which somehow Severus figured that Undol would be capable of doing, despite its illegality for one of his age to know how to apparate.

Severus sighed in defeat, another dead end; Albus wasn't going to be pleased about this development. A glint of light caught Severus' eye, and he turned as a faint scarlet signature emerged from the side alley near where Potter's trail had dried up…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

For once in his life, Harry awoke with anticipation that it was his birthday. He had exited the private bedroom to find a smiling Faykan in the adjoining study and presented with a tray of all his favorite breakfast food, along with a tall glass of pumpkin juice. Faykan told him to just relax and eat while he and the house elves prepared for the rest of the day.

"First however, I need to get the other party guest," Faykan added with a grin.

"Who?" Harry asked, his thoughts immediately jumping to Ron or Hermione.

"Why, Draco of course..." Faykan said, still smirking as he moved to the fireplace in Harry's room, his sea-blue robes dancing across the floor. He grabbed a fistful of Floo powder and with a shout of "Malfoy Manor," and the roar of the emerald flames, he was gone.

Harry didn't have long to ponder why Faykan was only inviting Draco out of his other friends that he typically felt closer to, because only a few moments after his best friend vanished into the fireplace, Harry heard the rustle of wings and turned to see three owls fly into his room. One landed with elegance on the small table, but the second owl, which was large and gray, landed hard and keeled right over, lying motionless where it rested. Harry recognized Errol, the Weasley's family owl, and after quickly checking that the bird was still alive, he inspected the large package tied to its leg.

Hedwig arrived immediately after, her beautiful white body soaring over to his tray of food and landing with a small clatter of talons to present him with an affectionate nip on the ear and the mail she carried. The first owl that had arrived, a large tawny one, offered him a letter and package that had the Hogwarts seal upon them. It ruffled its feathers importantly as Harry took them and flew back out the window it had entered through without any treat or payment of any sort.

Hedwig nudged the graying Errol until the bird roused itself, and finally the old bird maneuvered to deliver its items to Harry, who took them eagerly.

Harry sat back against the chair and grabbed Errol's package first, ripped off the brown paper, and discovered a present wrapped in gold paper, and his first received birthday card. Fingers trembling slightly, he opened the envelope. Two pieces of paper fell out; a letter and a newspaper clipping. The clipping had clearly come out of the wizarding newspaper, _the Daily Prophet_ , because the people in the black and white picture were moving. Harry picked up the clipping, smoothed it out, and read:

 _ **MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE**_

' _Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw._

 _A delighted Mr. Weasley told the Daily Prophet, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank."_

 _The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend.'_

Harry scanned the moving photograph, and a grin spread across his face as he saw all nine of the Weasleys waving furiously at him, standing in front of a large pyramid, plump little Mrs. Weasley; tail, balding Mr. Weasley; their six sons; and one daughter, all, though the black and white picture didn't show it, with flaming red hair. Right in the middle of the picture was Ron, tall and gangling, with his pet rat, Scabbers, on his shoulder and his arm affectionately around his little sister, Ginny.

Harry couldn't think of anyone who deserved to win a large pile of gold more than the Weasleys, who were very nice and extremely poor. He picked up Ron's letter and unfolded it.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _Happy birthday!_

 _It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff._

 _I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it's gone on this trip, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year._

Harry remembered only too well the occasion when Ron's old wand had snapped. It had happened when the car the two of them and Faykan had been flying to Hogwarts had crashed into a tree on the school grounds.

 _We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting you and Faykan there?_

 _Try and come to London,_

 _Ron_

 _P.S. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week._

Harry glanced back at the photograph. Percy, who was in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts, was looking particularly smug. He had pinned his Head Boy badge to the fez perched jauntily on top of his neat hair, his horn rimmed glasses flashing in the Egyptian sun.

Harry then turned to his present and unwrapped it. Inside was what looked like a miniature glass spinning top. There was another note from Ron beneath it.

 _Harry,_

 _This is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says its rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup._

 _Bye,_

 _Ron_

Harry put the Pocket Sneakoscope on his bedside table, where it stood quite still, balanced on its point, reflecting the luminous hands of his clock. He looked at it happily for a few seconds, and then picked up the parcel Hedwig had brought.

Inside this, too, there was a wrapped present, a card, and a letter, this time from Hermione.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _I'm on holiday in France at the moment and I didn't know how I was going to send this to you, what if they'd opened it at customs? But then Hedwig turned up! I think she wanted to make sure you got something for your birthday. I bought your present by owl order; there was an advertisement in the Daily Prophet (I've been getting it delivered; it's so good to keep up with what's going on in the wizarding world), did you see that picture of Ron and his family a week ago? I bet he's learning loads. I'm really jealous; the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating._

 _There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out; I hope it's not too long; its two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for._

 _Ron says he's going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you and Fay make it? I really hope you can. If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September First!_

 _Love from Hermione_

 _P.S. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased, though Ron doesn't seem too happy about it_

Harry laughed as he put Herrmone's letter aside and picked up her present. It was very heavy. Knowing Hermione, he was sure it would be a large book full of very difficult spells; but it wasn't. His heart gave a huge bound as he ripped back the paper and saw a shrunken, dragon-hide bound trunk with silver words stamped across it, reading _Harry J. Potter._

"Wow, Hermione!" Harry whispered, unlocking the trunk with a tap of his wand and looking inside. There were multiple compartments, all organized to be opened by any chosen method of the owner's creation, as well as protective charms and locks to keep out others, which Harry was grateful for. Ever since the previous year and, the issues with Tom Riddle's diary, he had had trouble trusting that his things might not be rifled through by his housemates while he was away.

Harry put the shrunken trunk aside and picked up his last parcel. He recognized the untidy scrawl on the brown paper at once: this was from Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. He tore off the top layer of paper and glimpsed something green and leathery, but before he could unwrap it properly, the parcel gave a strange quiver, and whatever was inside it snapped loudly, as though it had jaws.

Harry froze. He knew that Hagrid would never send him anything dangerous on purpose, but then, Hagrid didn't have a normal person's view of what was dangerous. Hagrid had been known to befriend giant spiders, buy vicious, three headed dogs from men in pubs, and sneak illegal dragon eggs into his cabin.

Harry poked the parcel nervously. It snapped loudly again. Harry reached for the lamp on the table, gripped it firmly in one hand, and raised it over his head, ready to strike. Then he seized the rest of the wrapping paper in his other hand and pulled.

Out fell a book. Harry just had time to register its handsome green cover, emblazoned with the golden title ' _The Monster Book of Monsters_ ,' before it flipped onto its edge and scuttled sideways along the floor like some weird crab.

"Uh oh," Harry muttered.

The book shuffled rapidly across the room. Harry got up and followed it stealthily. The book was hiding in the dark space under the far desk. Harry got down on his hands and knees and reached toward it.

"Ouch!"

The book snapped shut on his hand and then flapped past him, still scuttling on its covers. Harry scrambled around, threw himself forward, and managed to flatten it. Hedwig and Errol watched interestedly as Harry clamped the struggling book tightly in his arms, hurried to his trunk in the other room, and pulled out a belt, which he buckled tightly around it. The Monster Book shuddered angrily, but could no longer flap and snap, so Harry threw it down on the bed and returned to the study, searching for Hagrid's card.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _Happy Birthday!_

 _Think you might find this useful for next year. Won't say no more here. Tell you when I see you. Hope the Muggles are treating you right._

 _All the best,_

 _Hagrid_

It struck Harry as ominous that Hagrid thought a biting book would come in useful, but he put Hagrid's card up next to Ron's and Hermione's, grinning broader than ever. Now there was only the letter from Hogwarts left. Noticing that it was rather thicker than usual, Harry slit open the envelope, pulled out the first page of parchment within, and read:

 _Dear Mr. Potter,_

 _Please note that the new school year will begin on September the First. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock._

 _Third years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign._

 _A list of books for next year is enclosed. Yours sincerely,_

 _Professor M. McGonagall_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

Harry pulled out the Hogsmeade permission form and looked at it, no longer grinning. He couldn't exactly go back to Privet drive to just get one permission form signed, if the Dursleys would even do it. They'd probably refuse just to spite him.

Harry finally shrugged; he could live without going one year. Next summer he'd get them to sign it, somehow. Sitting back down on his bed, Harry reread all of his birthday cards while polishing off the wonderful breakfast Faykan had brought him, as his mind wandered to what his friend had planned for the rest of this wonderful day.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco sat expectantly in his private parlor, waiting for Faykan to show up to take him so they could plan Harry's birthday.

Faykan had owled his father weeks ago to tell him, not ask Draco had noticed, that he was coming on July thirty-first to take Draco to his home for the remainder of the summer holiday, and that they would return in time to depart for Hogwarts on September the first. Lucius clearly also had noticed the lack of a request, but had said nothing about the matter, he himself being busy with meetings that Draco had not been permitted to attend or hear about.

Draco had a sinking feeling that they had something to do with the Death Eaters, and that they might have been planning something terrible for the next year or so, but he was started out of his thoughts by the fireplace flaring into life and Faykan entering his room with the grace of royalty.

"Ready to go Draco?" his friend asked without preamble.

Draco nodded. He had packed the things he was sure to need for the next month, as well as his things for Hogwarts only a day after Faykan's letter had come. Draco crossed the room to join Faykan just as his door opened and his mother came in.

"I thought I heard the floo just now Draco and, oh, Mr. Undol how nice to see you." she said as she noticed Faykan.

"Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy," Faykan said with a flourishing bow, "good to see you again. I have come to take Draco with me for the rest of the summer."

"Of course," Narcissa replied, walking to Draco and straightening his robes. Draco blushed slightly at the display of affection in front of his friend, but Faykan just smiled knowingly, giving them all the time they needed to say their goodbyes.

Narcissa double checked that Draco had all his things, told him to behave while in another wizard's house, and finally kissed him on the forehead, giving him a small wrapped package and whispering in his ear, "Give your cousin, Harry Potter, this for me, my little dragon." Draco nodded and went to stand by Faykan, who offered him a small paper with the name of his house written on it.

Draco studied it, allowing the magic of the secret keeper to wash over him, granting him access to the hidden location as Faykan pulled out a portkey; a small black key, and muttered the activation word.

With a final look at his mother, who waved in farewell, Draco felt the distinct pull behind his navel as the portkey sucked him and Faykan through space…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus was meeting with Lucius Malfoy and other leading Death Eaters to discuss plans for the Quidditch World Cup finals the following year. Severus was only mildly concerned with the happenings, as he was certain that not only would Dumbledore do little to nothing to stop this, but that there would be little harm that the Death Eaters could inflict before the Ministry swooped it to attempt to arrest anyone.

Severus decided that he would simply slip out and go back to Hogwarts, seeing how Nott Sr. was arguing the details of their plan with Lucius, and he had no intentions of participating personally anyway.

Severus left the drawing room and was about to head toward the main entrance when he saw Narcissa Malfoy climbing the stairs to the family bedrooms. He decided that it was only polite to notify the matron of the house of his intended departure.

Climbing after her to the Malfoy family's bedrooms, Severus heard the sound of voices coming from his godson's room. He had pushed the door open just in time to see Undol and Draco being pulled away by a Portkey, and Narcissa waving farewell to her son.

She turned and jumped slightly as she saw the Potions Master, but recovered herself quickly, "Oh, Severus. I didn't hear you come in."

Severus wasted no time in questioning the Malfoy matriarch about Faykan Undol's presence in her house. Unfortunately, she knew very little, only that he had sent a letter earlier that month saying he would be taking Draco to his home around this time, and that it was most likely under a Fidelius charm, which she explained because of the note Undol had shown Draco right before they had portkeyed away. She also mentioned that she had given a birthday present to Draco to pass along to Potter, assuming that he was also with Undol.

Severus thanked her for her hospitality and honesty concerning the matter, and flooed back to Hogwarts. Instead of remaining in his quarters as he had intended, he decided to immediately go up to the Headmaster's office, knowing that Albus would want to know of this development, even if it wasn't that promising.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry was practicing the sword techniques that Faykan had drilled him on during the past month when Faykan and Draco appeared nearby.

Draco landed hard, and had to take a few seconds to steady himself. He then looked up at the tower that was Faykan's house and audibly gasped. The look on his face clearly said that he had never seen anything like the black marble-like structure before him. Harry sheathed _Hadhafang_ as Faykan approached him, allowing Draco a moment alone to pick his jaw up off the ground and reset his dignity. When the blond Pureblood finally joined them, the three boys set back toward the tower, Draco badgering Faykan with many questions regarding the tower, many of which were along the same lines that Harry had already asked.

"Oh, here you are, Harry," Draco said in the midst of his questions, handing Harry a small, brightly wrapped package, "this is from my mother."

Harry took it gratefully, and pulled off the paper to reveal a box of sweets from Honeydukes, the popular candy shop in Hogsmeade.

"Thanks!" Harry said as he bit into one of the many treats the box contained, and closed his eyes, relishing the taste. Faykan tried to steal a small chocolate out of the box, but Harry slapped his hand away. Faykan pouted at that, but cheered up greatly when they all reached the front doors.

Throwing them open with a grand flourish, he stepped aside and Harry stared in surprise. The entire main room was decorated with red and gold ribbons, cloths, and balloons. As they made their way through the tower, Harry became more and more impressed to find that every room had been decorated in like manner, and when they arrived in the upper main room, they found that the large throne had an enchanted lion's head mounted over it, which growled and roared occasionally.

As the three boys walked into the room, small rockets zoomed up into the vast vaulted ceiling and exploded, showering them with sparks and forming the words _'Happy 13_ _th_ _Birthday, Harry Potter'_.

Faykan and Draco had to force Harry to sit in the large black throne, and spent the rest of the afternoon treating him like a king, presenting him with the best selections of food and teasing him by referring him as 'your majesty' or 'milord'.

They played wizard chess and exploding snap for several hours, both Faykan and Harry losing pitifully to Draco, and by the end they were all significantly singed from the exploding cards. Finally, Dobby and Faykan's two house elves appeared, levitating a huge thirteen layered chocolate cake that the three boys were sure they could never hope to finish before the end of the summer, let alone that day.

After they all ate as much as they could until they felt fit to burst, Faykan pulled out a large leather bound book and handed it to Harry, explaining that it was a book about the languages of the elves, and how to learn to read and write in it. Harry was surprised to learn that there were multiple, and not a single language that the ancient race used.

Draco also gave him a watch that worked underwater, glowed in the dark, and could point to true north when the command word was spoken. Afterward they had lounged on the balcony near their three rooms, Draco having deposited his things in the roomnext to Harry's on the same level, and Harry read from his new language book with Draco while Faykan answered their questions and smoked from a clay pipe, sending large smoke rings drifting out over the forest.

Harry found it odd that his friend smoked at such a young age, but Faykan simply shrugged and said it was something he had always wanted to try. When the sun had finally set below the horizon, the three boys agreed that it was time to turn in.

They all disappeared into their individual rooms, and Harry tried to settle down to sleep, but had some difficulty because of the excitement of the day. He was finally lulled to sleep by music that drifted from Faykan's room across the hall, sounding very much like the same song that he had sung the day after Harry initially arrived, which soothed Harry's mind and relaxed his body until he simply drifted off.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was exceedingly impressed not only with how Harry's party had gone, but with Faykan's house in general.

The artifacts that he had decorating the walls of his many rooms were both fascinating and beautiful. Suits of armor, weapons, and banners from long dead kingdoms and cultures were among the many exotic possessions that drew Draco's attention. But the one thing that seemed to call to him was the strange spherical item in the upper chamber; the cloth covered object on the pedestal. It seemed to speak to him when he was near it, and during the night Draco could almost hear his name being whispered from rooms far below.

During the day, Faykan kept both Draco and Harry exceedingly busy either practicing horseback riding, sword fighting, dueling, or just strolling through the forest surrounding the tower. Draco had grown quite proficient at the stunning spell, while Harry tended to favor the disarming charm.

Faykan paired them against each other for the most part, jumping in himself only to offer specific instruction to either of them or to correct their movements. Draco had borrowed an elven blade to practice against Harry and his weapon as well. Draco also noticed that his two friends seemed to grow significantly taller during their months stay at Faykan's home.

When he arrived Faykan seemed to be only slightly taller than Harry, even though both boys were shorter than him by at least two inches, but by the second to last week of the holidays, Harry was almost as tall as Draco, with Faykan trailing behind him by a half inch. Harry's hair had changed a bit as well, slightly longer and marginally less messy due to the growth.

The night before they had planned to go get their things at Diagon Alley, Faykan was reading to them from a book he named ' _Quenta Silmarillion_.' He was just reading about the awakening of elves under the stars long before the creation of the sun and moon, long after the creation of the world during the Ainulindalë, when there was a loud bellowing groan from the forest below them. Faykan leapt up, wand in hand, the book forgotten in the chair behind him. Within seconds he had reached the window and peered out into the gloom of night.

"Stay here, I'll be back soon," he said turning to Draco and Harry, before storming out and closing the door behind him.

Draco blinked at Harry for several seconds before speaking, "Wonder what that was about?"

Harry just shrugged before picking up his book about the language of the elves. Draco tried to read also, but something was pulling his attention to the center of the room, where the strange orb-shaped object sat. Draco tried to ignore the whispers, but after several minutes of the subtle tugs he finally stood and walked towards the plinth. As he approached, Harry turned to watch him but his friend said nothing. Draco ran a hand over the cloth covering the sphere, gently pulling it away, revealing a blackish stone, perfectly round and glass-like. Within the stone were swirling grayish clouds and shapeless lights.

Harry got up; his eyes drawn to the stone just as Draco reached out a hand to touch it, clearly just as curious as Draco was regarding the object, and everything in this tower as well.

"Draco…" Harry said but he stopped, unable to voice anything in protest. The stone was warm in Draco's hand, almost as if it was gladdened that he was touching it. Draco felt himself wondering just who Faykan was to possess such a wonderful object. Suddenly the flames of the braziers dimmed, casting the room into near total darkness.

Draco looked around, surprised, before his eyes were drawn back to the stone in his hand. The clouds within the object slowed and eventually vanished from sight, replaced by images and scenes that neither Draco nor Harry could explain.

At first, they saw an image of five figures appear, disembarking from a pure white ship onto a grey stone pier. They were all old men; bearded and carrying staffs. Two wore blue robes, one a dull brown color, another wore grey, and the last who was in the forefront wore robes of shimmering white. Their eyes were the most piercing colors that Draco could ever remember seeing and they radiated power and majesty as they walked. Just as strange and different as they felt, Draco could swear that they felt familiar to him all the same.

As suddenly as the image appeared, it changed. The two blue-robed men were riding horses through a strange forest, their staves in one hand, and bows strapped to their backs. The images whirled faster and faster, and soon Draco and Harry could only see glimpses of things before they changed into something else. The brown-robed man sitting in front of a large cabin, speaking to a large eagle before it took off into the sky. Then they saw the white robed man speaking to a group of men wearing ragged hides.

Finally the scene focused onto the old grey-robed man as he led a group of eight strange people through dark tunnels. Four of the strangers were small, only around three feet tall, another was only slightly taller, and Draco recognized him as a dwarf from last Valentine's Day and Lockhart's ridicules celebration, but this one was far older and nobler looking. Two were older men, though not nearly as old as the grey clad leader. And the last, the last was a person more beautiful than Draco could describe any being he had ever laid eyes on. The male figure was slender yet strong-looking. He had bright eyes and long silver-white hair very similar to Draco's own, and his ears were pointed. He was clearly an elf, one of the ones that Faykan had mentioned quite often.

Suddenly the group of nine started running. Many dark shapes appeared behind them and began pursuing them through the winding tunnels. They entered a large hall, and fire surged up behind them. And finally, the old man spoke, his voice ringing through the chamber as Harry and Draco watched. The language was strange, but both boys had no difficultly understanding.

" _Look ahead! The Bridge is near. Be careful, for it is dangerous and narrow."_

The figures were running towards a large black chasm. Their only means of crossing was a long slender bridge that jutted across it, only wide enough for them to cross one at a time. The old man stopped at the near side of the bridge and ushered the others before him, constantly glancing back with fear at the way they had come. Arrows were flying toward them from the darkness, striking one of the small people and bouncing off them. The fire far behind seemed to be cutting off their pursuers, strange creatures with slanted eyes and blackish skin covered in dark iron armor and carrying large bows and cruel-looking scimitars.

The elf-like man turned to fire an arrow back at the dark creatures in retaliation, but cried out in dismay and fear. Two giant shapes, trolls, Draco recognized, were setting large slabs of stone across the fire, and the sea of smaller evil creatures had parted in fear as something large and shadowy, man-like in shape but greater, full of power and terror that even Draco could feel it through the vision, moved to the edge of the wall of fire. Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. In its right hand was a blade made of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs.

" _Ai! Ai! A Balrog! A Balrog is come!"_ the elf cried in horror.

The dwarf stared with wide eyes at the dark creature as his axe fell from his grasp, _"Durin's Bane!"_ he cried, covering his face.

The old man in grey faltered, and leaned heavily on his staff, _"A Balrog, now I understand. What an evil fortune, and I am already weary."_

The dark figure streaming with fire raced towards them. The smaller creatures yelled and poured over the stone gangways behind it. Then one of the younger men raised a horn and blew. The challenge rang loud and bellowed, like the shout of many throats under the cavernous roof. For a moment the small creatures quailed and the fiery shadow halted. Then the echoes died as suddenly as it sounded, and the creatures advanced again.

" _Over the bridge!"_ the old man cried _"Fly! This is a foe beyond any of you. I must hold the narrow way. Fly!"_

But none of the others heeded his commands, waiting on the far side of the bridge to watch him face the mass of creatures alone.

The Balrog reached the bridge first. The old man stood in the middle of the span, leaning on the staff in his left hand, but in his other hand a shining silver sword gleamed, cold and white. Draco recognized it as Faykan's sword _Glamdring._ His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. It raised the whip, and the thongs whined and cracked. Fire came from its nostrils. But the man stood firm.

" _You cannot pass,"_ he said firmly. The small creatures stood still, and a dead silence fell. _"I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass."_

The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall; but still the man could be seen, glimmering in the gloom; he seemed small, and altogether alone: grey and bent, like a wizened tree before the onset of a storm.

A red sword leaped out, flaming, from out of the shadow. _Glamdring_ glittered white in answer. There was a ringing clash and a stab of white fire. The Balrog fell back and its sword flew up in molten fragments. The old man swayed on the bridge, stepped back a pace, and then again stood still.

" _You cannot pass!"_ he repeated, his voice booming off the far walls of the cavern.

With a bound the Balrog leaped full upon the bridge. Its whip whirled and hissed.

" _He cannot stand alone!"_ cried one of the younger men suddenly, and ran back along the bridge. _"Elendil!"_ he shouted. _"I am with you, Gandalf!"_

" _Gondor!"_ cried the other man as he leaped after him.

At that moment Gandalf lifted his staff, and crying aloud, _"You shall not pass,"_ he smote the bridge before him. The staff broke asunder and fell from his hand. A blinding sheet of white flame sprang up. The bridge cracked and broke right at the Balrog's feet, and the stone upon which it stood crashed into the gulf, while the rest remained, poised, jutting out into emptiness.

With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished. But even as it fell it swung its whip, and the thongs lashed and curled about Gandalf's knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered, fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. _"Fly, you fools!"_ he cried, and was gone.

The stone went black afterward, and the lights from the braziers returned. They weren't as bright as before, seemingly lessened after what they had seen. Neither boy spoke, too shocked at all they had seen, and not comprehending why they had seen it.

Draco started as a hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Faykan was staring into his eyes, worry and excitement gleaming in the shining azure, "What did you see?"

 _Ostendo sum veneficus vestigium : reveal magic traces (Latin)_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _This section marks the beginning where I had to do a great deal of content shuffling between chapters, as I was seeing many swelling quite large, and to keep the chapter size as uniform as possible, bits and pieces had to be moved from the end of one chapter to the beginning of another, or the opposite, and so far in my editing it has become quite the trend. Elaboration, caused by a wise and eagle eyed reader, has been done with regards to the languages of elvish that Harry, Draco, and later Ron and Hermione will start to learn, and I had to solidify that it was Quenya that they were learning, and modify some of the incantations that come up later on, as I was primarily using sindaren, which turns out to be the more difficult language to learn, as a dialectal modification of Quenya. Lots of fun, by my college life is trying desperately to infring on my time to edit, so things have been slow. with that and the new top secret something in relation to the ANP storyline; however, I will be very much invested in the proceedings for a long time to come._

 _much fun for all to be had, and thanks for reading! ~F_


	29. Y3-C3: Darkness on the Hogwarts Express

_Many thanks to those who reviewed Y3:C2, as ever your comments make it all worth while! Please continue to do so, and as always: enjoy the next chapter!_

 **Chapter Three**

 **Darkness on the Hogwarts Express**

Faykan released Draco's shoulder and took the orb from his hand, replacing and covering it again with the cloth, hiding away the swirling smoke and its taunting presence. "What did you see?" he repeated, turning back to face them. Harry was far too lost in his own thoughts to answer, completely unsure as to what they had indeed witnessed in the stone's depths to even hope to describe it.

Therefore it was up to Draco to explain the strange visions they had seen, beginning with the five strange old men, and ending with the grey-clad one named Gandalf combating the strange being called a Balrog in the dark cave. Faykan sat on his throne-like chair in silence as Draco spoke, not interrupting or questioning, but not explaining anything either.

Finally, only after Draco had completely finished, Faykan leaned back with a sigh and finally spoke, "So you heard the call of the _Palantír of_ _Elendil_ the entire time you've been here, Draco?" the Slytherin boy nodded and Faykan tried to hide a small smile, but Harry saw it. It was puzzling that such a thing would please him, but Harry was still too confused to comprehend much of what was going on.

He watched as his friend calmly explained the more vivid visions they had witnessed: that the five old men were the mighty Istari who had come during the Third Age to guide the inhabitants of _Arda_ ; Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown, Alatar the Azure and Pallando the Cyan.

He we on to tell that the two wizards of the Blue, Alatar and Pallando were sent into the eastern and southern regions of the world to combat evil and cause the people to return to the Light, while Radagast kept and cared for the animals of the natural world. Saruman dwelt among men and had gifts of cunning and skill, while Gandalf, arguably the most famous of the five, saw about the defeat the great enemy of the Age, Sauron.

"But," Harry finally asked, "Why did we see these things in that stone? I don't understand…"

Faykan sighed again at Harry's question. "Neither do I, but it's exciting though, isn't it. I cannot say for certain, perhaps lingering magic from thousands of years ago when Saruman dwelt in this valley, finally triggered when one of worthy ancestry interacted with the stone, but I'm not so sure."

Harry gasped; one of those powerful men had lived here, in this very tower. Draco also looked just as shocked and surprised, but Faykan would say no more, persuading both Harry and Draco to go to bed, as they were going to be out all day tomorrow at Diagon Alley, therefore they needed their rest.

But even as Harry closed the door to his room, he could see Faykan settling down on the balcony with his clay pipe again, drawing deeply from the burning herbs in it and staring out over the forest with a faraway stare that Harry was so familiar with when his best friend pondered deep matters.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Diagon Alley was as fascinating as it always was. Draco had many favored memories of the many shops from when he was little with his parents, but being here with just his friends was even more exciting.

Even still, for Draco himself, he'd have rather been back at Faykan's home, pouring over the many tomes in the library there, or else bombarding the boy with more questions in relation to the _Palantír_ and what he had meant regarding Draco's ancestry. It was obvious that the black haired boy knew far more than he was letting on, but every attempt for Draco to get him alone to ask were thwarted thusfar.

After filling their coin purses with gold at Gringotts, the three friends set off down the street. Draco had to drag Harry and Faykan over to _Quality Quidditch Supplies_ in order to investigate a gathered crowd.

"Just come out, prototype…" a square jawed wizard was telling his companion.

"It's the fastest broom in the world, isn't it, Dad?" squeaked a boy younger than Draco, who was swinging off his father's arm.

"Irish International Side's just put in an order for seven of these beauties!" the proprietor of the shop told the crowd. "And they're favorites for the World Cup!"

Draco pushed past a few people and made room for Faykan and Harry so they could read the sign next to the new broom:

 _ **THE FIREBOLT**_

 _THIS STATE-OF-THE-ART PACING BROOM SPORTS_

 _A STREAM-LINED, SUPERFINE HANDLE OF ASH,_

 _TREATED WITH A DIAMOND-HARD POLISH AND_

 _HAND- NUMBERED WITH ITS OWN REGISTRATION NUMBER._

 _EACH INDIVIDUALLY SELECTED BIRCH TWIG_

 _IN THE BROOMTAIL HAS BEEN HONED TO AERODYNAMIC_

 _PERFECTION, GIVING THE FIREBOLT UNSURPASSABLE_

 _BALANCE AND PINPOINT PRECISION._

 _THE FIREBOLT HAS_

 _AN ACCELERATION OF 150 MILES AN HOUR IN TEN SECONDS AND_

 _INCORPORATES AN_

 _UNBREAKABLE BRAKING CHARM._

 _PRICE ON REQUEST._

Draco winced when he read ' _Price on request_ ,' not wanting to know how much damage the broom could do to a bank vault. He was sure that his father would never purchase the Firebolt for him.

Looking to his friends, Draco could see the same look of desire on Harry, but he really didn't need the new prototype. He was far better than any other Seeker in Hogwarts on just his Nimbus Two-Thousand, including Draco himself. Faykan looked disinterested at the broom, but humored them nonetheless, as the other boy had never really been into Quidditch as much as Harry, Draco or Ron.

Draco managed to stare longingly at the broom for a few more moments before Faykan eventually pulled him and Harry out of the crowd by their collars, saying that they really needed to get their purchases done and meet up with Ron and Hermione, who were supposed to meet them later.

So they went and replenished their potions ingredients and purchased new school robes first, which was especially important for both Harry and Faykan, given their recent growth spurts. Draco also mentioned that they ought to acquire dress robes, because his father would be inviting them to the Malfoy Yuletide celebration over the Christmas holiday.

Most important was their need to buy their new books, including the ones for their new subjects. Draco had chosen Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures, and he knew that Harry and Faykan were both taking Divination.

After acquiring their books - the manager had cried after Faykan said that he and Draco needed copies of _The Monster Book of Monsters_ , and Harry had had to be pulled away from a book about death omens - they went together down to _Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor_ for a break from shopping. There they ran into Ron and Hermione, who were sitting outside the store on benches, surrounded by their own purchases. The pair waved as they approached, adding their stacks of purchases to the pile of Ron's and Hermione's and joined them at their outside table, ordering large ice creams for the five of them to enjoy.

"Look at this," said Ron, pulling a long thin box out of a bag and opening it. "Brand new wand. Fourteen inches, willow, containing one unicorn tail hair. And we've got all our books…" He pointed at a large bag under his chair. "What about those Monster Books, eh? The assistant looked like he wanted to run off when we said we wanted two." They all laughed, except Hermione, who was looking through her extra bags of books. Harry asked her about it, and she explained that she had more books because she was taking all of the extra subjects that year.

"Are you planning to eat or sleep at all this year, Hermione?" asked Harry, while Ron and Faykan sniggered. Hermione ignored them.

"I've still got ten Galleons," she said, checking her purse. "It's my birthday in September, and Mum and Dad gave me some money to get myself an early birthday present."

"How about a nice… book?" said Ron innocently.

"No, I don't think so," said Hermione, ignoring the teasing. "I really want an owl. I mean, Harry's got Hedwig, Faykan has his raven, and you've got Errol…"

"I haven't," said Ron. "Errol's a family owl. All I've got is Scabbers."

He pulled his pet rat out of his pocket. "And I want to get him checked over," he added, placing Scabbers on the table in front of them. "I don't think Egypt agreed with him."

Scabbers was indeed looking thinner than usual, and there was a definite droop to his whiskers.

"There's a magical creature shop just over there," said Draco, who knew Diagon Alley very well. "You could see if they've got anything for Scabbers, and Hermione can get her owl."

So, once they had finished and paid for their ice cream, they crossed the street to the Magical Menagerie.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

He had been stuck in this pet shop for so long; he was weary of waiting for someone to bond with. The woman who owned the building didn't like him, he knew it, but she could not get rid of him. She would throw him out every other week, and he would find a way back inside.

The bell chimed, signaling the door opening. ' _Perhaps today is the day at last?_ ' he dared to hope. Three boys, nothing special about them, two were bonded to familiars already. The girl was interesting, she was unbonded at the moment, but she was eyeing the owls.

The fourth boy was odd; he was not what he appeared to be. He smelled old, very old, and full of memory and wisdom, but alas, he was bonded to a bird as well.

The red haired boy pulled a rat out and place it on the desk, wait, it was no rat… it was a man, a man in hiding and full of fear… he sniffed again, he smell the scent of fear mixed with… _betrayal_. The rat man was dangerous, he must act!

He leaped, diving on top of the red boy'ss head, spitting and clawing at the rat man, defending these children from the betrayer.

"NO, CROOKSHANKS, NO!" cried the owner witch, but the rat man shot from between her hands, landed on the floor, and then scampered for the door. The boys ran after the rat. But he was dangerous, foolish humans! Crookshanks started to race after the rat, but the girl had caught and lifted him into her arms…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

It took them nearly ten minutes to catch Scabbers, who had taken refuge under a wastepaper bin outside Quality Quidditch Supplies.

Ron stuffed the trembling rat back into his pocket and straightened up, massaging his head. They made their way back up the crowded street to the _Magical Menagerie_. As they reached it, Hermione came out, but she wasn't carrying an owl. Her arms were clamped tightly around the enormous ginger cat.

"You bought that monster!?" Ron exclaimed, his mouth hanging open.

"He's gorgeous, isn't he?" Hermione cooed, glowing in happiness and outright ignoring what Ron had said.

' _That's was a matter of opinion_ ,' thought Harry. The cat's ginger fur was thick and fluffy, but it was definitely a bit bowlegged and its face looked grumpy and oddly squashed, as though it had run headlong into a brick wall. Now that Scabbers was out of sight however, the cat was purring contentedly in Hermione's arms.

"Hermione, that thing nearly scalped me!" Ron persisted.

"He didn't mean to, did you, Crookshanks?" Hermione continued, holding the feline up to her face and giggling at it.

"And what about Scabbers?" demanded Ron, pointing at the lump in his chest pocket. "He needs rest and relaxation! How's he going to get it with that thing around?"

"That reminds me, you forgot your rat tonic," Hermione added, slapping the small red bottle into Ron's hand. "And stop worrying, Crookshanks will be sleeping in my dormitory and Scabbers in yours, so what's the problem?" she shrugged, before returning her attention to the cat, "Poor Crookshanks, that witch said he'd been in there for ages; no one wanted him."

"Wonder why," Ron said sarcastically, as they set off toward the Leaky Cauldron. Harry saw Faykan eyeing the cat curiously. Meanwhile, Draco was simply shaking his head at Hermione and Ron's argument.

The rest of the Weasleys were waiting inside the pub as the five third years entered. Faykan went to get a room for himself, Harry and Draco, while Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, Ginny and Percy talked with the others.

They mainly discussed Percy being Head Boy, or the Ministry cars they would be taking to King's Cross the next day. Harry noticed that Ginny seemed less embarrassed about being so close to him, probably because she was too busy stealing glances at a certain young, blond aristocrat.

Mr. Weasley wouldn't explain why the Ministry was providing the cars, and Harry was worried that it might have something to do with Sirius Black. His suspicions were later confirmed when he went downstairs after dinner to pick up one of Draco's books that he had left out.

Harry was halfway along the passage to the bar, which was now very dark, when he heard another pair of angry voices coming from the parlor. A second later, he recognized them as Mr. and Mrs. Weasleys'. He hesitated, not wanting them to know he'd heard them arguing, when the sound of his own name made him stop, then move closer to the parlor door.

"…makes no sense not to tell him," Mr. Weasley was saying heatedly. "Harry's got a right to know. I've tried to tell Dumbledore, but he insists on treating Harry like a child. He's thirteen years old and…"

"Arthur, the truth would terrify him!" said Mrs. Weasley shrilly. "Do you really want to send Harry back to school with that hanging over him? For heaven's sake, he's happy not knowing!"

"I don't want to make him miserable; I want to put him on his guard!" retorted Mr. Weasley. "You know what Harry, Ron and their friends are like, wandering off by themselves; they've ended up in the Forbidden Forest twice! But Harry mustn't do that this year! When I think what could have happened to him that night Faykan took him away from home! We all though Black had gotten him until Dumbledore said he was safely hidden away with his friend. But Dumbledore was angry, Molly; he clearly didn't like the idea of Harry being away from his relatives with Black on the loose, he tried so hard to keep it out of the papers that Harry has disappeared…"

"But he's not dead, he's fine, so what's the point…" Mrs. Weasley tried, but Mr. Weasley interrupted her.

"Molly," he said, "they say Sirius Black's mad, and maybe he is, but he was clever enough to escape from Azkaban, and that's supposed to be impossible. It's been three weeks, and no one's seen hide nor hair of him, and I don't care what Fudge keeps telling the Daily Prophet, we're no nearer catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands. The only thing we know for sure is what Black's after…"

"But Harry will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts." Mrs. Weasley retorted.

"We thought Azkaban was perfectly safe." Mr. Weasley countered, "If Black can break out of Azkaban, he can break into Hogwarts."

"But no one's really sure that Black's after Harry…" Mrs. Weasley said, sounding more desperate in her argument.

There was a heavy thud on wood, and Harry was sure Mr. Weasley had banged his fist on the table. "Molly, how many times do I have to tell you? They didn't report it in the press because Fudge wanted it kept quiet, but Fudge went out to Azkaban the night Black escaped. The guards told Fudge that Blacks been talking in his sleep for a while now. Always the same words: _'He's at Hogwarts... he's at Hogwarts_.' Black is deranged, Molly, and he wants Harry dead. If you ask me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back to power. Black lost everything the night Harry stopped You-Know-Who, and he's had twelve years alone in Azkaban to brood on that..."

There was a silence. Harry leaned still closer to the door, desperate to hear more.

"Well, Arthur, you must do what you think is right." Mrs. Weasley finally said unhappily, "But you're forgetting Albus Dumbledore. I don't think anything could hurt Harry at Hogwarts while Dumbledore's headmaster. I suppose he knows about all this?"

"Of course he knows." Mr. Weasley replied, sounding slightly exasperated, "We had to ask him if he minds the Azkaban guards stationing themselves around the entrances to the school grounds. He wasn't happy about it, but he agreed."

"Not happy? Why shouldn't he be happy, if they're there to catch Black?" Mrs. Weasley retorted, starting up again in their arguing.

"Dumbledore isn't fond of the Azkaban guards," Mr. Weasley said heavily. "Nor am I, if it comes to that... but when you're dealing with a wizard like Black, you sometimes have to join forces with those you'd rather avoid."

"If they save Harry then I will never say another word against them," said Mr. Weasley wearily a moment later, clearly interrupting his wife from prolonging the debate. "It's late, Molly, we'd better go up..."

' _So this was the answer_ ,' Harry thought. Sirius Black was after _him_. And the Ministry was sending two Ministry cars to take them all to the station tomorrow, so that the Weasleys could look after Harry until he was on the train, and they were posting guards around Hogwarts just to keep him safe.

Harry returned to the bedroom he was sharing and placed the book on Draco's trunk. The boy was already asleep in one of the three beds in their room, as there had only been one room available. He glanced at Faykan's still form, curled on his side as he slept, but facing away from him.

Unbidden, the image of the giant dog in the shadows of Magnolia Crescent crossed Harry's mind, in addition to the Grim that he had seen on the book in Flourish and Blotts. _'What to do when you know the worst is coming...'_

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful. Harry was comfortably seated in the back of a car with Ron, Hermione and Faykan. The Ministry of Magic's cars seemed almost ordinary, though Harry noticed that they could slide through gaps that any other muggle car wouldn't have managed.

They reached King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare; the Ministry drivers found them trolleys, unloaded their trunks, touched their hats in salute to Mr. Weasley, and drove away, somehow managing to jump to the head of an unmoving line at the traffic lights.

Mr. Weasley kept close to Harry's elbow all the way into the station.

"Right then," he said, glancing around them. "Let's do this in pairs, as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry."

Mr. Weasley strolled toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten, pushing Harry's trolley and apparently very interested in the Intercity 125 train that had just arrived at platform nine.

With a meaningful look at Harry, he leaned casually against the barrier. Harry imitated him. In a moment, they had fallen sideways through the solid metal onto platform nine and three quarters and looked up to see the Hogwarts Express, a scarlet steam engine, puffing smoke over a platform packed with witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train.

Faykan and Draco appeared behind them within moments, later followed by Ron and Ginny, Hermione and Percy, Fred and George, and finally Mrs. Weasley.

"Ah, there's Penelope!" said Percy as he emerged, smoothing his hair and going pink again. Ron caught Harry's eye, and they both turned away to hide their laughter as Percy strode over to a girl with long, curly hair, walking with his chest thrown out so that she couldn't miss his shiny badge.

After loading their trunks and animals onto the train, they stepped off again to say goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Harry was embarrassed when Mrs. Weasley hugged him, but it still was pleasant. Mr. Weasley pulled him aside to request, or rather beg, Harry to, of all the strangest things, not go looking for Black.

Harry was very confused. Why would he want to look for someone who wanted to kill him? Finally he agreed, if only just so he could get on the train before it left the station. Ron had to throw open one of the doors for Harry to jump in. They leaned out of the window and waved at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley until the train turned a corner and blocked them from view.

"I need to talk to you in private," Harry muttered to Ron, Faykan and Hermione as the train picked up speed. Draco was gone, presumable sitting with some of the Slytherins to keep up his appearances as only neutrally friendly with Gryffindors.

"Go away, Ginny," Ron demanded, turning on his sister.

"Oh, that's nice," replied Ginny huffily, and she stalked off.

Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione set off down the corridor the opposite direction, looking for an empty compartment, but all were completely full except for the one at the very end of the train.

This compartment had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. Harry, Ron, and Hermione paused on the threshold. The Hogwarts Express was usually reserved for students and they had never seen an adult there before, except for the witch who pushed the food trolley.

The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been worn in several places, and he looked ill and exhausted. Though appearing quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with gray.

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed to them as they sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats farthest away from the window.

"Professor R. J. Lupin," whispered Hermione at once.

"How d'you know that?" Ron said turning to look at Harry and Faykan, "How does she always know these things?"

"It's on his case, Ron," Faykan said, rolling his eyes as he pointed at the luggage rack over the man's head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string. The name ' _Professor R. J. Lupin_ ' was clearly stamped across one corner in peeling letters.

"Wonder what he teaches?" said Ron, frowning at Professor Lupin's pallid profile.

"That's obvious," whispered Hermione. "There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Well, I hope he's up to it," said Ron doubtfully. "He looks like one good hex would finish him off, doesn't he? Anyway..." He turned to Harry. "What were you going to tell us?"

Harry explained all about Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's argument and the warning Mr. Weasley had just given him on the platform. When he'd finished, Ron looked thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth. She finally lowered them to say, "Sirius Black escaped to come after you? Oh, Harry... you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble."

"I don't go looking for trouble," said Harry, nettled. "Trouble usually finds me."

"How thick would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill him?" said Ron shakily.

They were both taking the news worse than Harry had expected. Both Ron and Hermione seemed to be much more frightened of Black than he or Faykan was.

"No one knows how he got out of Azkaban," said Ron uncomfortably. "No one's ever done it before. And he was a top security prisoner too."

"But they'll catch him, won't they?" said Hermione earnestly.

"I'm going to tell you two what I told Harry over the summer," Faykan said slowly and deliberately, "Black might not have been as guilty as the Ministry is leading everyone to believe. They never gave him a trial after all, and the circumstances under which he was taken to Azkaban in the first place are a little fishy. Just don't completely assume that he actually is coming for Harry."

"What's that noise?" said Ron suddenly.

A faint, tinny sort of whistle was coming from somewhere. The, looked all around the compartment.

"It's coming from your trunk, Harry," said Ron, standing up and reaching into the luggage rack. A moment later he had pulled the Pocket Sneakoscope out from between Harry's robes. It was spinning very fast in the palm of Ron's hand and glowing brilliantly.

"Is that a Sneakoscope?" inquired Hermione interestedly, standing up for a better look.

"Yeah... mind you, it's a very cheap one," Ron explained. "It went haywire just as I was tying it to Errol's leg to send it to Harry."

"Were you doing anything untrustworthy at the time?" asked Hermione shrewdly.

"No!" Ron vehemently denied, before relenting, "Well... I wasn't supposed to be using Errol. You know he's not really up to long journeys... but how else was I supposed to get Harry's present to him?"

"Stick it back in the trunk," Faykan advised, even as the Sneakoscope whistled piercingly, "or it'll wake him up."

He nodded toward Professor Lupin. Ron stuffed the Sneakoscope into a pair of old socks, which muffled the sound, then closed the lid of the trunk on it.

"We could get it checked in Hogsmeade," said Ron, sitting back down. "They sell that sort of thing in Dervish and Banges, magical instruments and stuff. Fred and George told me."

"Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" asked Hermione keenly. "I've read it's the only entirely non Muggle settlement in Britain…"

"Yeah, I think it is," said Ron in an offhand sort of way, "but that's not why I want to go. I just want to get inside Honeydukes."

"What's that?" said Hermione.

"It's this sweetshop," said Ron, a dreamy look coming over his face, "where they've got everything... Pepper Imps; they make you smoke at the mouth, and great fat Chocoballs full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream, and really excellent sugar quills, which you can suck in class and just look like you're thinking what to write next…"

"But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?" Hermione pressed on eagerly. "In Sites of Historical Sorcery it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion, and the Shrieking Shack supposed to be the most severely haunted building in Britain…"

"…and massive sherbert balls that make you levitate a few inches off the ground while you're sucking them," said Ron, who was plainly not listening to a word Hermione was saying.

Hermione looked around at Harry, "Won't it be nice to get out of school for a bit and explore Hogsmeade?" she asked.

"'Spect it will," said Harry heavily. "You'll have to tell me when you've found out."

"What d'you mean?" said Ron.

"I can't go, I didn't get the permission form until I was at Faykan's house, and then it was too late to get the Dursleys to sign it."

Ron looked horrified, but Faykan laughed, "Good thing I made them sign a copy when I picked you up then isn't it?"

Harry looked at his best friend, and grinned widely, but before anyone could say anything the compartment door opened, and Theodore Nott barged in, "Well, look who it is, Potty and his little buddies," he drawled.

Crabbe and Goyle chuckled trollishly.

"I heard your father finally got his hands on some gold this summer, Weasel," Nott continued. "Did your mother die of shock?"

Ron stood up so quickly he knocked Crookshanks' basket to the floor. Professor Lupin gave a snort.

"Careful Nott, we've got a teacher in this compartment," Faykan said with a sly grin. Nott glared at him, and Harry followed the Slytherin's eyes as they darted from Faykan to Harry and back. "C'mon," Nott muttered resentfully to Crabbe and Goyle, and they disappeared, Nott sending a final glare at Faykan before disappearing.

Ron sat down slowly, fingering his new wand. "I can't wait to try this wand out on Nott this year, if he or any other Slytherin makes one more crack about my family; I'm going to give them the hexing of a lifetime."

"Ron," hissed Hermione, pointing at Professor Lupin, "be careful..."

But Professor Lupin was still fast asleep.

The rain thickened as the train sped yet farther north; the windows were now a solid, shimmering gray, which gradually darkened until lanterns flickered into life all along the corridors and over the luggage racks. The train rattled, the rain hammered, the engine roared, but still, Professor Lupin slept.

"We must be nearly there," said Ron, leaning forward to look past Professor Lupin at the now completely black window.

The words had hardly left him when the train started to slow down

"Great," said Ron, getting up and walking carefully past Professor Lupin to try and see outside. "I'm starving. I want to get to the feast…"

"We can't be there yet," said Hermione, checking her watch.

"So why're we stopping?" asked Harry.

The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons fell away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows.

Harry, who was nearest the door got up to look into the corridor. All along the carriage, heads were sticking curiously out of their compartments.

The train came to a stop with a jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out and they were plunged into total darkness.

"'What's going on?" said Ron's voice from behind Harry.

"Ouch!" gasped Hermione. "Ron, that was my foot!"

Harry felt his way back to his seat.

"D'you think we've broken down?" Hermione asked, turning to Faykan.

"Dunno..." he responded.

There was a squeaking sound, and Harry saw the dim black outline of Ron, wiping a patch clean on the window and peering out.

"There's something moving out there," Ron said. "I think people are coming aboard..."

Harry heard Faykan gasp in sudden pain, but before he could light his wand to try and help the compartment door suddenly opened and someone fell painfully over Harry's legs.

"Sorry… d'you know what's going on? Ouch! Sorry."

"Hullo, Neville," said Harry, feeling around in the dark and pulling Neville up by his cloak.

"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?" the other Gryffindor asked desperately.

"No idea, sit down…" Harry said, gently pushing Neville into the seat he had vacated.

Faykan shouted again at the same time as Neville tried to sit on Crookshanks. There was a thud as someone fell off their seat onto the floor and Faykan began to moan in agony.

"Faykan?" Harry said getting off his seat and feeling around for his friend. The door slid open again, and someone tripped over Harry with a squeal of pain.

"Who's that?" he said, gripping his head in pain.

"Who's that?" said the voice at the same time.

"Ginny?"

"Harry?"

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Quiet!" said a hoarse voice suddenly.

Professor Lupin appeared to have woken up at last by all the noise. Harry could hear movements in his corner.

None of them spoke but Faykan, still on the floor, had started to scream in anguish.

There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames. They illuminated his tired, gray face, but his eyes looked alert and wary.

Lupin knelt near Faykan's head and in the light revealed that he was curled on the floor, grasping desperately at his chest and shaking madly. His screams started increasing in pitch as Professor Lupin tried to remove his hand to look at what was paining him.

And then the compartment door slid slowly open.

Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's hand, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood. Faykan's screams became even more sharp and piercing and he started to thrash on the floor. Harry's eyes darted downward, and what he saw made his stomach contract. There was a hand protruding from the cloak and it was glistening, grayish, slimy looking, and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water…

But it was visible only for a split second. Faykan screamed in Elvish a name Harry recognized as the queen of the Valar, " _Ai Elbereth_!" The hand was suddenly withdrawn into the folds of its black cloak and the creature reared back slightly, a small shriek emerging from beneath the cloak.

And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.

An intense cold swept over them all. Harry felt his own breath catch in his chest. The cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest, it was inside his very heart...

Harry's eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn't see. He was drowning in cold. There was a rushing in his ears as though of water. He was being dragged downward, the roaring growing louder...

And then, from far away, he heard screaming, terrible, terrified, pleading screams, but they weren't coming from Faykan. He wanted to help whoever it was, he tried to move his arms, but couldn't... a thick white fog was swirling around him, inside him…

 _Ai Elbereth: oh star-queen_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You Have Been Warned!**

 _So, much of the end of this chapter, from the original, was cropped away for the next chapter due to trying to even out the length of each. Otherwise, a lot of ironing out the dialogue, making sure that each line has a context of speaker, as while it works with a stead back and forth to leave off names of characters, the second a third is added it ceases to function properly... As brief as it was, the HP canon is creeping back in to steal away the plotline, but don't worry, we haven't seen the last of the LotR content in this book. Still, a very canonical chapter with characters that are as-of-yet unaffected from their standard courses by the presence of Faykan or his actions, namely the Weasley parents and Remus._

 _ _More to come in its due time however! so until then, laugh, be happy, and enjoy!__

 _ _ _ _~F____


	30. Y3-C4: Early Complications

_Once again, many thanks to those who review. Rather generic intro today, been under the weather since Friday last and still not fully back up to speed with myself. enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Four**

 **Early Complications**

"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?" a voice was saying. Someone was slapping his face.

"W-what?" he groaned in reply.

Harry opened his eyes; there were lanterns above him, and the floor was shaking; the Hogwarts Express was moving again and the lights had come back on. He seemed to have fallen to the floor.

Ron and Hermione were kneeling next to him, and above them he could see Neville and Professor Lupin watching. Faykan was lying on the seat vacated by Professor Lupin, wide eyed and still shaking badly. Harry felt very sick; when he put up his hand to push his glasses back on, he felt cold sweat on his face.

Ron and Hermione heaved him back onto his seat.

"Are you okay?" Ron asked nervously.

"Yeah," said Harry, looking quickly toward the door. The hooded creature had vanished. "What happened? Where's that, that thing? Who screamed?"

"No one screamed, other than Faykan," said Ron, more nervously still.

Harry looked around the bright compartment. Ginny and Neville looked back at him, both very pale.

"But I heard screaming…" Harry insisted.

A loud snap made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.

"Here," he said to Harry, handing him and Faykan particularly large pieces. "Eat it. It'll help."

Harry took the chocolate but didn't eat it. "What was that thing?" he asked Lupin.

"A dementor," said Lupin, who was now giving smaller pieces of chocolate to everyone else, "one of the dementors of Azkaban."

Everyone stared at him. Professor Lupin crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket.

"Eat," he repeated. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me..." He strolled past Harry and disappeared into the corridor.

"Are you sure you're okay, Harry?" said Hermione, watching Harry anxiously.

"I don't get it... What happened?" said Harry, wiping more sweat off his face.

"We thought you might have been having a fit, just like Faykan was, but not nearly as severe," Ron said, still looking very scared.

"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked toward the dementor, and pulled out his wand," said Hermione, "and he said, 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' But the dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, and it turned around and sort of glided away... "

"It was horrible," said Neville, in a higher voice than usual. "Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?"

"I felt weird," said Ron, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. "Like I'd never be cheerful again..."

Ginny, who was huddled in her corner looking nearly as bad as Harry felt, gave a small sob; Hermione went over and put a comforting arm around her.

Professor Lupin had come back. He paused as he entered, looked around, and said, with a small smile, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know..."

Harry took a bite and to his great surprise felt warmth spread suddenly to the tips of his fingers and toes.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," said Professor Lupin. "Are you all right, Harry?"

Harry didn't ask how Professor Lupin knew his name.

"Fine," he muttered, and the Professor turned and started to coax Faykan into eating his chocolate. Slowly Faykan started to nibble it, and Professor Lupin pushed him to lie flat on the seat, moving Neville and Ginny to stand to the side. "I'm going to lift your shirt so I can see what you were trying desperately to grab, alright?" he said in a calm soothing voice.

Faykan nodded slightly, but his eyes were unfocused and dim. Professor Lupin then lifted his shirt, and Harry gasped; the scar on Faykan's chest has swollen an angry shade of red. It looked like it was infected or inflamed. Lupin ran a finger down the side of it and Faykan moaned in pain again, rolling to the side to get away from the probing fingers.

"Its just inflamed and irritated, it should die down in an hour or two." Lupin said finally, standing again. "If it doesn't, I want you to see Madam Pomfrey immediately, understand?" Faykan nodded again, and Harry could see his eyes coming back into focus although they looked far deeper than usual, and filled with intense grief.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

At long last, the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble to get out onto the platform; owls hooted, cats meowed, and Neville's pet toad croaked loudly from under his hat. It was freezing on the tiny platform; rain was driving down in icy sheets. Harry and Ron had to half-carry Faykan, as he was still shaking with pain, and it reminded Harry painfully of their arrival last year.

"Firs' years this way!" called a familiar voice. Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned and saw the gigantic outline of Hagrid at the other end of the platform, beckoning the terrified looking new students forward for their traditional journey across the lake.

"All right, you four?" Hagrid yelled over the heads of the crowd. They had no chance to speak to him because the mass of people around them were shunting them away along the platform. They slowly followed the rest of the school out onto a rough, mud track where at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the remaining students.

Faykan kept looking toward where a horse would have been placed to pull the carriage, but Harry was too focused on making sure his friend didn't stumble and fall, as he was still seemed very weak. Harry could only assume that they were pulled by an invisible horse of some sort, or magic itself, because once they climbed inside and shut the door, the coach set off all by itself, bumping and swaying in procession.

The coach smelled faintly of mold and straw. Harry felt better since eating his piece of the chocolate, but still slightly feeble. Ron and Hermione kept looking at both Faykan and him sideways, as though frightened one or the other might collapse again.

As the carriage trundled toward a pair of magnificent wrought iron gates flanked with stone columns topped with winged boars, Harry saw two more towering, hooded dementors standing guard on either side. Faykan started to moan loudly in pain again. He almost fell forward in his seat, but Ron caught him while Harry tried to make him more comfortable, running a hand gently across Faykan's back to try and relax the shuddering boy.

A wave of cold sickness threatened to engulf Harry again; he finally leaned back into the lumpy seat and closed his eyes until they had passed through the gates. The carriage picked up speed then as it went along the long, sloping drive up to the castle. Hermione was leaning out of the tiny window, watching the many turrets and towers draw nearer.

At last, the carriage swayed to a halt, and Hermione and Ron got out. Harry helped lower Faykan and then stepped down himself in time to hear a drawling, delighted voice calling from one of the other carriages. "Was that you Undol, screaming your head off on the train like you were being gutted?"

Nott elbowed past Hermione in order to block Ron and Harry, who were still supporting Faykan as they slowly climbed up the stone steps of the castle. The Slytherin's face was gleeful and his pale eyes glinting maliciously.

"Shove off, Nott," snapped Ron, whose jaw was clenched.

"Did you have a fit too Potter?" Nott continued loudly, ignoring Ron as he looked at Harry's paler than normal face, "Was Longbottom telling the truth when he said you both fainted when the scary, old dementor came on board?"

"Is there a problem?" said a mild voice. Professor Lupin had just gotten out of the next carriage.

Nott gave Professor Lupin an insolent stare, which took in the patches on his robes and the dilapidated suitcase. With a tiny hint of sarcasm in his voice, he said, "Oh, no… err, Professor," then he smirked at Crabbe and Goyle and led them up the steps into the castle.

Hermione prodded Ron in the back to make him hurry, and the four of them joined the crowd swarming up the steps, through the giant oak front doors, and into the cavernous entrance hall. It was lit with flaming torches, and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors.

The door into the Great Hall stood open at the right; Harry followed the crowd toward it, but had barely glimpsed the enchanted ceiling, which was black and cloudy tonight, when a voice called, "Potter! Undol! Granger! I want to see you three!"

Harry and Hermione turned around, surprised. Professor McGonagall, Transfiguration teacher and head of Gryffindor House, was calling over the heads of the crowd. Harry fought his way over to her, with Ron holding Faykan by throwing the other boy's arm around his neck. Harry had a feeling of foreboding; Professor McGonagall had a way of making him feel he must have done something wrong.

"There's no need to look so worried, I just want a word in my office," she told them. "Move along there, Weasley."

Ron slowly let Harry take Faykan's weight and waited until they were out of sight, staring as Professor McGonagall ushered the other three away from the chattering crowd. They accompanied her across the entrance hall, up the marble staircase, and along a corridor.

Once they were in her office, a small room with a large, welcoming fire, Professor McGonagall motioned them to sit down. She settled herself behind her desk and said abruptly, "Professor Lupin sent an owl ahead to say that you and Mr. Undol were taken ill on the train, Potter."

Before Harry could reply, there was a soft knock on the door and Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, came bustling in.

Harry felt himself going red in the face. It was bad enough that he'd passed out, or whatever he had done, without everyone making all this fuss.

"I'm fine," he said, "I don't need anything, Faykan is the one who needs to be looked at, not me!"

"Oh, it's you two, is it?" said Madam Pomfrey, ignoring this and bending down to stare closely at Harry. "I suppose you've both been doing something dangerous again?"

"It was a dementor, Poppy," said Professor McGonagall.

They exchanged a dark look, and Madam Pomfrey clucked disapprovingly.

"Setting dementors around a school," she muttered, pushing back Harry's hair and feeling his forehead. "They won't be the last ones who collapse. Yes, he's all clammy. Terrible things, they are, and the effect they have on people who are already delicate…"

"I'm not delicate!" said Harry crossly.

"Of course you're not," said Madam Pomfrey absentmindedly, now checking Faykan, who looked close to collapsing again.

"What does he need?" said Professor McGonagall crisply, glancing toward Faykan. "Bed rest? Should he perhaps spend tonight in the hospital wing?"

"At the least, they should all have some chocolate, but in Mr. Undol's case… I've never seen such a bad reaction… Oh my!" she had lifted his shirt to expose the terrible red wound, if anything it looked like it had gotten worse since the train.

"This boy needs to go to the hospital wing, immediately," Madam Pomfrey said, conjuring a stretcher, and then passing some chocolate to Harry and Hermione, "Here, you need to eat this."

"I've already had some," said Harry. "Professor Lupin gave me some. He gave it to all of us."

"Did he, now?" said Madam Pomfrey approvingly. "So we've finally got a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who knows his remedies?"

She bustled out, pushing the now floating stretcher ahead of her.

"Are you sure you feel all right, Potter?" Professor McGonagall said sharply.

"Yes," Harry replied firmly.

"Very well. Kindly wait outside while I have a quick word with Miss Granger about her course schedule, then we can go down to the feast together."

Harry went back into the corridor after Madam Pomfrey, who left for the hospital wing, muttering to herself as she guided Faykan's stretcher. He had to wait only a few minutes before Hermione emerged looking very happy about something, followed by Professor McGonagall. The three of them made their way back down the marble staircase to the Great Hall.

It was a sea of pointed black hats; each of the long House tables was lined with students, their faces glimmering by the light of thousands of candles floating over the tables in mid-air. Professor Flitwick, who was a tiny little wizard with a shock of white hair, was carrying an ancient hat and a three legged stool out of the hall.

"Oh," said Hermione softly, "we've missed the Sorting!"

Professor McGonagall strode off toward her empty seat at the staff table, while Harry and Hermione set off in the other direction, as quietly as possible, toward the Gryffindor table. People looked around at them as they passed along the back of the hall, and a few of them pointed at Harry. Had the story of his collapsing in front of the dementor traveled that fast?

He and Hermione sat down on either side of Ron, who had saved them seats.

"What was all that about? And where's Faykan?" he muttered to Harry.

Harry started to explain in a whisper, but at that moment the headmaster stood up to speak, and he broke off.

"Welcome!" said Dumbledore, the candlelight shimmering on his beard. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast..."

Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."

He paused, and Harry remembered what Mr. Weasley had said about Dumbledore not being happy with the dementors guarding the school.

"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," Dumbledore continued, "and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises… or even Invisibility Cloaks," he added blandly, and Harry and Ron glanced at each other.

"It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the dementors," Dumbledore said, gesturing out to the student tables.

Percy, who was sitting a few seats down from Harry, puffed out his chest again and stared around impressively. Dumbledore paused again; he looked very seriously around the hall, and nobody moved or made a sound.

"On a happier note," he continued, "I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year. First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was some scattered, rather unenthusiastic applause. Only those who had been in the compartment on the train with Professor Lupin clapped hard, Harry among them. Professor Lupin looked particularly shabby next to all the other teachers in their best robes.

"Look at Snape!" Ron hissed in Harry's ear.

Professor Snape, the Potions master, was staring along the staff table at Professor Lupin. It was common knowledge that Snape wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, but even Harry was startled at the expression twisting his thin, sallow face.

It was beyond anger; it was loathing. Harry knew that expression only too well; it was the look Snape wore every time he set eyes on Harry and occasionally Faykan when the other boy wore on his nerves. Although, that was not exactly true, Harry mused, thinking about it more. Snape seemed to be more confused and strangely disappointed with Faykan than hateful, but he couldn't fathom why that would be.

"As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued, after the lukewarm applause for Professor Lupin had died away. "Well… I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his game keeping duties."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at one another, stunned. Then they joined in with Faykan and the other with applause, which was tumultuous at the Gryffindor table in particular. Harry leaned forward to see Hagrid, who was ruby red in the face and staring down at his enormous hands, his wide grin hidden in the tangle of his black beard.

"We should've known!" Ron roared, pounding the table. "Who else would have assigned us a biting book?"

Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione were the last to stop clapping, and as Professor Dumbledore started speaking again, they saw that Hagrid was wiping his eyes on the tablecloth.

"Well, I think that's everything of importance," said Dumbledore, looking around at them all. "Let the feast begin!"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

At long last, when the final morsels of pumpkin tart had melted away from the golden platters, Dumbledore gave the word that it was time for all children to go to bed. The students started to file away up to their common rooms, chatting amongst themselves, already getting back into the spirit if Hogwarts.

Severus started to get up, ready to set off to his own quarters when he caught Albus' eye. He waited while the rest of the students and teachers cleared away until finally it was just him, Albus, Minerva, and unfortunately, Lupin.

"Now, Professor Lupin, please inform us as to what actually occurred on the train concerning Mr. Undol and the dementor." Albus requested, leading them all up to the Hospital Wing. Lupin recounted what he knew, which was unsurprisingly little, in the tine it took for them to arrive, and Severus spotted that Poppy had her hands full trying to just get the boy to lie still. Undol was on the bed furthest from the door, bare-chested and crying out every time Poppy tried to inspect the hideous gash on his chest, thrashing around deliriously.

She turned as the group of teachers arrived, and Severus immediately went to her aid in holding the boy down, grabbing his arms while Lupin took Undol's legs to prevent him from kicking. "I haven't seen anything like it Headmaster," Poppy said, worry in her voice, "it appears to just be a simple stab wound, long healed over, but the way it's inflamed… I couldn't get the poor boy to let me look at it properly, he's just in too much pain, even after a pain relief potion."

"Did you try dreamless sleep, Poppy?" Severus asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"He is in enchanted sleep Severus." She replied, looking even more concerned in admitting it, "Whatever caused that injury, it was extremely powerful and very dark. I doubt anyone alive could completely heal that wound Albus."

The old headmaster wasn't listening however; he was studying Undol's face. Slowly the aged wizard approached the boy and opened one of the young Gryffindor's eyes, revealing a blue orb that had lost its usual piercing radiance, darkened over with pain, despair and… Severus raised an eyebrow, did he see remorse in the boy's dilated eyes. Surely not… there wasn't enough in the boy's young life to possible evoke that sort of devastating emotion, even in the worst of memories.

"Marvelous thing memories…" Albus said, ignoring the ragged sounds of the boy's breathing, as he had long since stopped convulsing ever since Poppy stopped trying to touch the wound. He was lying almost peacefully on the bed now, occasionally shivering from the cold of the room, "I think, that whatever caused this much pain to young Mr. Undol, placed a curse upon the wound that returns that torment whenever the memory is stirred."

Minerva gasped; "Surely you don't mean to say that the boy's memory is causing that much residual pain?" she choked.

"That is exactly what I think. Dementors are powerful, dark creatures, living off all the worst memories that people possess, and thereby forcing those memories to the forefront of our minds…" Dumbledore theorized

"So what can we do about this?" Severus finally asked what was on all of their minds.

"Nothing…" Albus said sorrowfully, "we can only try and keep Mr. Undol away from the dementors as long as they are here at Hogwarts. Hopefully the pain will not be as severe if he distances himself from them."

Severus looked down again at the flaming red mark on the boy's torso. It did seem to be finally looking better than when they had come in, and Undol was now sleeping peacefully at last, fully content within the blackness that the dreamless potion caused.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was starting to really despise some of the other Slytherins.

Nott had been 'entertaining' the other third year of his house with a very bad rendition of what he presumed had occurred on the train the night before. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered and passed their table on the way to their side of the Great Hall, Nott immediately did his own pathetic impression of a swooning fit and roared with laughter alongside the others.

The fact that Harry had also collapsed on the train had gone rather unnoticed by the majority of the school because of the wild rumors about Faykan, apparently he had been attacked by the dementor and was now dying in the hospital wing, but Nott made it a point to remember that Harry had reacted as well, if only to mock and degrade the Gryffindors all the more.

"Hey, Potter!" shrieked Pansy Parkinson, "Potter! The dementors are coming, Potter! Woooooooooo!" Draco shuddered inwardly, remembering that his father had actually considered pledging her to Draco when they were small children. Thankfully, Lucius had waited and realized what poor breeding she turned out to be, and therefore had dropped the idea.

The three Gryffindors passed by without reacting, thanks in large part to Hermione, and settled themselves by the Weasley twins, who handed them their schedules. Nott was still reciting about the train ride, so Draco decided to slip away from his housemates and go ask Harry directly what had happened.

As he approached he heard one of the twins recounting one time that their father had had to go to Azkaban and the reaction he had to the dementors. Harry turned, noticing when Draco stopped next to him, and nudged Hermione to make room for Draco to sit with them.

"Where's Faykan?" Draco asked, hoping to get straight to the heart of the matter.

"Hospital wing still…" Harry said darkly, and then explained about the ugly wound that had flared up, causing Faykan to become delirious with pain. Ron jabbed Harry in the side, and both he and Draco turned to see the subject of their conversation entering the Great Hall.

Nott noticed as well, "Not going to start screaming again are you Undol? Need someone to keep the mean old dementors away?" he called out as Faykan passed, but he was ignored.

Faykan settled down between Harry and Ron and accepted his schedule, "Oh, we're starting some new subjects today," he said, slightly disappointed, and as though nothing out of the ordinary had caused his late arrival to breakfast.

Ron leaned in and asked if Faykan remembered what had happened on the train, or afterword, but Faykan shuddered at the mere mention of the dementor, asking for it not to be mentioned. Draco spotted that the boy's hand had moved to press hard over a spot on his chest as he reacted.

Ron glanced down at the schedule in his hand, and widened his eyes in suprise, "Oh, Hermione I have your schedule…" he said, before taking a second glance "wait a second… you have three classes set for this morning at nine o'clock…" he asked dumbly, gaping at the parchment in his hands.

Hermione snatched it away, telling Ron to not be silly, and asking how someone could be at three places at once. Draco caught Faykan's eye as he looked over at Hermione suspiciously, but deflected Ron's protests about her schedule by reminding them that they had to get to North Tower for Divination, and that it would be a long trek if they didn't start early.

They all got up and left, ignoring Nott once more as he tried to mock them on their way out. Seeing Hagrid in the entrance hall, they waved at him, knowing that they would see him after lunch at his first lesson.

Draco parted with the Gryffindors after that, in order to go to his own Arithmancy class.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~_

"Welcome to Divination," said Professor Trelawney, who had seated herself in a winged armchair in front of the fire as she introduced herself. "You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye," she explained.

Harry's impression of the divination teacher was that of a large, glittering insect. He, Faykan, Ron, and Hermione were settled around one of the many round tables, with Faykan and Harry in armchairs while Ron and Hermione were settled on the smaller poufs.

Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you... Books can take you only so far in this field..."

At these words both Harry and Ron glanced, grinning, at Hermione, who looked startled at the news that books wouldn't be much help in this subject. Faykan however, was staring past Professor Trelawney into the fireplace with a strange, absent sort of look. Harry thought at first that it was the same faraway glance that the boy took when thinking about something or riddling out a mystery, but upon closer inspection it was quite different, more serene than distant.

"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face. "It is a Gift granted to few. You, boy," she said suddenly to Neville, who almost toppled off his pouf. "Is your grandmother well?"

"I think so," said Neville tremulously.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," said Professor Trelawney, the firelight glinting on her long emerald earrings. Neville gulped. Professor Trelawney continued placidly. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," she shot suddenly at Parvati Patil, "beware a red-haired man."

Parvati gave a startled look at Ron, who was right behind her and edged her chair away from him. Ron just rolled his eyes in response.

"In the third term," Professor Trelawney went on, "we shall move on to the crystal ball, if we have finished with studying fire omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice, and around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever."

A very tense silence followed this pronouncement, but Professor Trelawney seemed unaware of it.

"I wonder, dear," she said to Lavender Brown, who was nearest and shrank back in her chair, "if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?"

Lavender, looking relieved, stood up, took an enormous teapot from the shelf, and put it down on the table in front of Professor Trelawney.

"Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading… it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October."

Lavender trembled.

"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs," Professor Trelawney instructed. "Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer. Wait for the last of the tea to drain away, and then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of 'Unfogging the Future.' I shall move among you, helping and instructing."

When Harry, Faykan, Hermione, and Ron had their teacups filled, they went back to their table and tried to drink the scalding tea quickly. They swilled the dregs around as Professor Trelawney had instructed, then drained the cups and swapped over, Ron with Hermione and Harry with Faykan.

"Right," said Ron as they all opened their books at pages five and six.

"What can you see in mine?" Faykan asked quietly to Harry

"A load of soggy brown stuff," said Harry. The heavily perfumed smoke in the room was making him feel sleepy and stupid.

"Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" Professor Trelawney cried through the gloom.

Harry tried to pull himself together.

"Right," he started, looking at the cup, "you've got a crooked sort of cross..." He consulted Unfogging the Future. "That means you're going to have 'trials and suffering', sorry about that, but there's a thing that could be the sun... hang on... that means 'great happiness'... so you're going to suffer but be very happy..."

"You need your Inner Eye tested, if you ask me," said Ron from across the table, and they all had to stifle their laughs as Professor Trelawney gazed in their direction.

"My turn..." Faykan said, snatching Harry's cup. He peered into it, and his forehead wrinkled with effort. "A falcon," he said, tilting his head left and right to try and make something out, "no surprises there… deadly enemy, Voldemort, blah… blah… blah…" he turned the cup slowly and continued to look.

"A club… meaning an attack, well, not if I can help it," he said with a smile. Harry noticed that he wasn't even consulting the book.

Professor Trelawney had moved up behind Faykan, looking over his shoulder as he read the cup, but he hadn't noticed yet.

"A skull, danger… but whatever, that's not out of the ordinary for us, isn't it Harry," Faykan continued with a small laugh.

He turned the cup a final time, and Professor Trelawney, who was definitely reading the cup over Faykan's shoulder gasped loudly, startling Faykan into dropping the cup. It smashed on the table.

"What is it, Professor?" said Dean Thomas at once. Everyone had gotten to their feet, and slowly they crowded around Harry and Faykan to listen.

"My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically as she looked at Harry, "You have the Grim."

Faykan scoffed loudly, while Harry asked, "The what?"

He could tell that he wasn't the only one who didn't understand; Dean Thomas shrugged at him and Lavender Brown looked puzzled, but nearly everybody else clapped their hands to their mouths in horror.

"The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" cried Professor Trelawney, who looked shocked that Harry hadn't understood. "The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen… the worst omen, of death!"

Harry's stomach lurched. That dog on the cover of Death Omens in Flourish and Blotts; the dog in the shadows of Magnolia Crescent...

Lavender Brown clapped her hands to her mouth too. Faykan rolled his eyes dramatically and spoke up, "Even if it was the Grim, Professor, it doesn't necessarily mean that Harry will die. Besides…" he looked up at Trelawney, "I highly doubt the accuracy of divination in general, there are far too many cases of self fulfilling prophecies and other utter nonsense…"

Professor Trelawney surveyed Faykan with a look of confused disappointment.

"You'll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I think I have a far better understanding of the workings of the Inner Eye than you do, despite your obvious affinity for it…"

"Well, have you all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not?" said Harry, taking even himself by surprise. Now nobody seemed to want to look at him.

"I think we will leave the lesson here for today," said Professor Trelawney in her mistiest voice. "Yes... please pack away your things..."

Silently the class took their teacups back to Professor Trelawney, packed away their books, and closed their bags. Even Ron and Faykan were avoiding Harry's eyes.

"Until we meet again," said Professor Trelawney faintly, "fair fortune be yours. Oh, and dear," she pointed at Neville, "you'll be late next time, so mind you work extra hard to catch up."

Harry was more than pleased to get out of the castle, and therefore far away from Professor Trelawney's tower, after lunch. The previous night's rain had cleared away; the sky was now a clear, pale gray, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as they set off for their first Care of Magical Creatures class.

Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other. They had had another row about the Divination class during lunch. Harry walked beside Faykan as they went down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, staying thoroughly out of it as he had throughout the meal.

It was only when he spotted three only-too-familiar figures ahead of them that he realized they must be having these lessons with the Slytherins. Nott was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling in response. Harry was quite sure he knew what they were talking about. Draco wandered over to them, earning a glare from the other Slytherins, but he ignored them.

Despite knowing that all his friends were now able to be together at one time, Harry wished that this class at the least wasn't Gryffindor and Slytherin, and wondered whose bright idea it was to put the two houses together so often for the more potentially dangerous classes.

Hagrid was waiting for them all at the door of his hut. He was wearing his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound at his heels, looking excited and impatient to start the lesson.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as the class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up!"

The group around Harry all paused at that, but Hagrid's beaming face revealed nothing of what his plans might be, "Everyone here?" he asked, before moving away from the hut and toward the treeline. "Right, follow me!" he called back when no one moved to follow him.

For one nasty moment, Harry thought that Hagrid was going to lead them into the forest; Harry had had enough unpleasant experiences in there to last him a lifetime. However, Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and about five minutes later, they found themselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.

"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he called. "That's it, make sure yeh can see… now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books…"

"How?" asked Draco genuinely, but from what Harry could see, many others were wondering the same question.

"Eh?" said Hagrid, momentarily losing his train of thought as he turned back to find who had spoken.

"How do we open our books?" Draco repeated. He took out his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Other people took theirs out too; some, like Harry, had belted their book shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips.

"Hasn'… hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen.

The class all shook their heads.

"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look…"

He took Hermione's copy and ripped off the Spellotape that bound it. The book tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Nott sneered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess?"

"I… I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Hermione.

"Oh, tremendously funny!" Nott shot back snidely. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

"Shut up, Nott," Harry and Faykan said simultaneously. Hagrid was looking downcast and Harry wanted Hagrid's first lesson to be a success.

"Righ' then," said Hagrid, who seemed to have lost his train of thought, "so, so yeh've got yer books an'… an', now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on... "

He strode away from them into the forest and out of sight.

"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Nott loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him."

"Shut up, Nott," Harry repeated louder.

"Careful, Potter, there's a dementor behind you…" one of the other Slytherins called, but movement from the trees distracted everyone from the taunt.

"Oooooooh!" squealed Lavender Brown, pointing at what Hagrid was leading back toward them.

They were some of the most bizarre creatures Harry had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel colored beaks and large, brilliantly, orange eyes. The talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly looking.

Each of the twelve beasts had a thick leather collar around its neck, which was attached to a long chain, and the ends of all of these were held in the vast hands of Hagrid, who came jogging into the paddock slightly ahead the creatures.

"Gee up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains loosely and urging the creatures toward the fence where the class stood. Everyone drew back slightly as Hagrid reached them and tethered each of the creatures to the fence.

"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. "Beau'iful, aren' they?"

And Harry could sort of see what Hagrid meant. Once you got over the first shock of seeing something that was half horse, half bird, you started to appreciate the hippogriffs' gleaming coats, changing smoothly from feather to hair, each of them a different color: stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, gleaming chestnut, and inky black.

"So," said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and beaming around, "if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer…"

No one seemed to want to at first. Spurred on a bit by Faykan, who took the first steps, Harry, Ron, Draco and Hermione eventually approached the fence, albeit cautiously.

"Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' hippogriffs is, they're proud," said Hagrid. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."

Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle weren't listening; they were talking in an undertone behind them all and Harry had a nasty feeling they were plotting how best to disrupt the lesson.

"Yeh always wait fer the hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid continued. "It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, and yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt."

All the students paying attention nodded, taking the instructions very seriously, as the sharp beaks and talons looked as dangerous as Hagrid made them out to be.

"Right," Hagrid said after a moment of them all watching the Hippogriffs, "who wants ter go first?"

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You have Been Warned!**

 _So, another displacement of Chapter start and stop, as I needed to spread our the words used to a more reasonable level. I feel that it was a better break, if not another mildly annoying cliffhanger, but when it works, it works, so what do you do? Not too many changes as far as the content of this chapter is concerned, as it serves as a needed bit of exposition regarding Faykan, and transition with the other characters back to life at Hogwarts, or so they think... those who read the original are probably smiling as they know about what is about to happen with the Room of Requirement and Faykan… Due to being sick last weekend I've sadly made very little progress with the edits, alongside other things that've come up, least of which not being college classes and writing papers all the time for them. Not burnt out, never will be, but it still takes its toll of time._

 _ _Until next time! ~F__


	31. Y3-C5: Hippogriffs and Boggarts

_Goodness, I have two weeks to edit and I'm out of ready to go chapters... so much work at the end of this semester preventing me from getting to work like I'd like to. Still, we go on... thank you for your continued support, and enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Five**

 **Hippogriffs and Boggarts**

Most of the class backed farther away in answer to Hagrid's question. Even Harry, Ron, Draco, and Hermione had their misgivings. The hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like this very much.

"No one?" said Hagrid, glancing about with a pleading look.

After another couple of terse moments, Faykan sighed loudly and stepped forward. "I'll do it," he said, climbing over the paddock fence as he did so.

"Good man, Faykan!" roared Hagrid, exuberant at someone in the class participating. "Right then… let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak."

He untied one of the chains, pulled the gray hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off the leather collar from around its neck. The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath around Harry and his friends. He glanced back, feeling something itching the back of his neck, and saw that Nott's eyes were narrowed maliciously as he watched Harry's best friend slowly approach the hippogriff.

"Easy now, Fay," Hagrid was saying quietly, beckoning him with one hand. "Yeh've got eye contact, now try not ter blink... Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much..."

Buckbeak had turned his great, sharp head and was staring at Faykan with one fierce orange eye. Faykan was staring right back, refusing to blink even when tears started to trickle down his cheeks from the strain. "Tha's it," said Hagrid. "Tha's it, Faykan... now, bow."

Faykan bowed deeply, not averting his eyes from the Buckbeak, who only stood unmoving, staring haughtily at him for a long while. Hagrid motioned for Faykan to back away, but then the hippogriff suddenly bent its scaly front knees and sank into a bow of its own.

"Well done, Faykan!" said Hagrid, sounding both excited and releived. "Right, yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"

Faykan looked only slightly nervous as he edged further forward, and slowly patted the hippogriff's beak. Buckbeak closed its eyes lazily, enjoying the caress even as the hippogriff leaned further into Faykan's hand.

The class broke into applause, all except for Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were looking deeply disappointed.

"Righ' then, Fay," said Hagrid. "I reckon he might' let yeh ride him!"

Faykan's eyes shot up, "What!" he yelped as Hagrid lifted the thirteen-year-old wizard easily and set him on Buckbeak's large back, "Hagrid I don't think this is a good…"

"Go on, then'" roared Hagrid, slapping the hippogriffs hindquarters.

Without warning, twelve-foot wings flapped open and the hippogriff charged across the paddock, soaring into the air while Faykan screamed in shock. They flew around the entire paddock once and landed back down with a loud thud.

"Good work, Faykan!" Hagrid said loudly, as everyone except Nott, Crabbe, and

Goyle cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"

Emboldened by Faykan's success, the rest of the class climbed cautiously into the paddock and approached the group of hippogriffs. Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon people were bowing nervously, all over the paddock. Neville ran repeatedly backward from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its knees. Harry, Draco, Ron and Hermione practiced on the chestnut, while Faykan watched.

Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle; meanwhile, had taken over with the gray Buckbeak. He had bowed to Nott, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainfully back at Harry and Faykan.

"This is very easy," Nott drawled, loud enough for Harry to hear him. "I knew it must have been, if even Undol could do it... I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" he said to the hippogriff. "Are you, you great ugly brute?"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was stroking the beak of the chestnut hippogriff when he heard Nott's piercing scream.

His head whipped around, and he saw Hagrid wrestling Buckbeak back into the hippogriff's collar as the powerful creature strained to get at Nott, who was lying curled in the grass with blood pouring from his arm.

"I'm dying!" Nott yelled as the class panicked. "I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!"

"Yer not dyin'!" said Hagrid, who had gone very white. "Someone help me, gotta get him outta here…"

Hermione ran to hold open the gate as Hagrid lifted Nott easily into his massive arms. As they passed, Draco saw that there was indeed a long, deep gash on the boy's arm, although clearly not in a location that would pose any problem for Madam Pomfrey to heal within the hour. Blood splattered the grass and Hagrid ran with Nott up the slope toward the castle. Very shaken, the Care of Magical Creatures class followed far behind at a walk, the other Slytherins were all complaining loudly about Hagrid the entire way.

"They should fire him straight away!" said Pansy Parkinson, who was in tears.

"It was Nott's fault!" snapped Draco in retort. Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly, but he wasn't scared of either of them. He knew enough about the pair of them when they were set to be at his side rather than Nott's in order to deflate their false sense of bravado.

"Like you care, blood traitor," Pansy yelled at him, catching them all off guard, and she ran up the marble staircase. The rest of the Slytherins grew very quiet as they watched how Draco would react to that challenging declaration.

Draco stiffened, not particularly caring about the idle threat that Pansy's pronouncement would mean right now, more focused of how this development was going to affect Hagrid, whom he counted as much of a friend as Harry or Faykan did.

Faykan grabbed Draco as he made to bypass all the staring eyes toward the dungeons, "Wait," he whispered in Draco's ear, "Come with me."

Faykan then lead Draco up the marble staircase toward Gryffindor Tower, following behind Harry, Ron and Hermione. As they reached the seventh floor, he tapped Harry on the shoulder and inclined his head down a nearby corridor. Harry looked ahead to Ron and Hermione, but they were arguing about the recent event with Nott again, and therefore did not notice the three boys as they slipped down the side corridor.

"What's this about, Faykan?" Draco asked as they made their way across the corridor. "People will ask questions if they see a Slytherin this high up the castle at this hour…"

"I'm showing you two the place where we are going to continue your training for the rest of our time at Hogwarts." Faykan replied, almost daring Draco to complain further about being on the seventh floor.

Harry looked like he was going to say something, but Draco suddenly recognized where they were, by the tapestry on the wall of pink tutus on troll forms. Faykan stood across from it, staring at the blank wall with a look of deep concentration. Several seconds went by, and suddenly the wall glowed, forming a giant pair of doors with runes etched in, writing in elvish.

Draco was surprised that he was able to recognize what they read quite easily; he and Harry had been studying the language of _Quenya_ every spare moment so they could use the language to converse without anyone else being able to listen in: _'_ _Ui mo ecmentië anat i quete ier málo_ _.'_

Faykan placed one hand upon the door, and simply read the words upon the door, causing it to grind open. Within, up on a slightly raised platform, was an arena for martial and magical dueling. Rows of weapons lined one of the walls, along with bookshelves on combat and defensive spells.

There were even archery targets on the far wall, and several bows rested by them. The three boys entered, Draco and Harry looking around in awe, while Faykan pulled a shrunken bundle out of his robes. He approached a waist high table off to the side with many chairs around it, and set the covered _Palantír_ from his house on it.

"Well?" he asked finally as he turned to them both.

"It's wonderful…" Harry said, still looking around.

"How did you find this, Fay?" Draco asked. He remembered this room from his first year, but it had only been a tiny cupboard then. How had it changed?

"This is the Room of Requirement," Faykan explained, "It stands idle, until someone passes it, and had great need for something, anything, and then the room becomes it. For example… say I needed a shortcut to the Gryffindor common room." He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and a door appeared in the side of the room.

Faykan walked over and opened it slowly, revealing the Gryffindor common room, Ron and Hermione were sitting at the fire, still arguing and not even noticing the new door that had opened out of the solid wall behind them. Faykan closed the door and smiled at Harry and Draco's shocked faces.

"Should we tell Ron and Hermione about this?" Harry asked after a long pause.

"Depends," Faykan replied, "Are you willing to sacrifice training time to bring them up to your and Draco's level?"

Harry didn't answer him, but wrenched the door he had created open and marched into the common room. Draco could see Ron and Hermione start at Harry's sudden appearance, and they stared open mouthed at the doorway. Faykan stood off to the side, shaking his head, smirking, while Harry led the two Gryffindors into the training room and explained what Faykan had told him and Draco about the room as well as their stay at Faykan's house.

"That must have been so educational…" Hermione said dreamily, as if being in such a historical building was a dream come true.

"Wow, Harry," Ron added, glancing over at the stand of weapons, "I didn't know you and Draco learned how to fight with swords."

Both Ron and Hermione practically demanded to join in and train with Harry and Draco while at school when the invitation was offered by Harry, and together Faykan, Harry and Draco set the rest of their free time teaching them the basics of swordplay.

Ron seemed to pick up the concept easily, far faster than Draco remembered learning it himself, but Hermione seemed to struggle. As odd as it seemed, the brilliant witch just didn't seem to have the mindset to actually hit an opponent when they were so close. Faykan eventually pulled her aside and swapped her sword for a bow and tried teaching her the concepts of archery, which she seemed to grasp a lot easier.

They kept at it until around dinnertime, Harry and Draco alternating with Ron, and Faykan with Hermione at the targets across the room. Finally, Ron's stomach gave a particularly loud rumble. His ears went slightly pink and he muttered, "Must be time for a break, huh?"

Draco agreed wholeheartedly, his arms were slightly sore from lifting his sword over and over to block and attack. The weapons supplied by the room were much heavier than the ones that Faykan had trained them with at Orthanc. Faykan and Hermione joined them in the corner where the small break area was set up, and they slumped into chairs around the table where the _Palantír_ rested.

Faykan closed his eyes for a moment and trays of food from the Great Hall appeared around the black wrapped orb, and they settled down to eat while Faykan, Hermione and Harry read from different books, and Ron challenged Draco to a game of chess, raising his eyebrows when a set appeared between them.

After they had all eaten their fill, and Ron won their second game, barely, Faykan decided to pair them up for some dueling practice, starting with _Expelliarmus_ , and working up through several spells that were O.W.L. level. Hermione was the only one who could perform all of the spells perfectly, not for a lack of trying on the account of the other three boys, when a distant clock chimed, signaling that it was well past their curfew.

Draco paled slightly at the thought, unsure how he was going to get to the dungeons without being caught, when he remembered where they were. As the Gryffindors filed through the door to their common room, Ron yawning loudly, Draco closed his eyes and focused on receiving a doorway to his dormitory.

After several seconds he opened his eyes slightly, and spotted a green door directly across the room from the red door to Gryffindor Tower. Edging it open, Draco saw the interior of his dormitory, the other beds filled with sleeping boys. Silently he swept through and closed the door, noting that it changed back into a large tapestry of the Slytherin Serpent as soon as he had turned away and glanced back.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Nott didn't reappear in classes until late Thursday morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through their double Potions lesson. The boy swaggered into the dungeon with his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, and acting, in Harry's opinion, as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle.

"How is it, Theo?" simpered Pansy Parkinson as he passed by her, "does it hurt much?"

"Yeah," said Nott, putting on a brave sort of grimace. However, Harry saw him wink at Crabbe and Goyle the moment Pansy looked away.

"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Snape idly.

Harry and Ron scowled at each other; Snape wouldn't have said "settle down" if they'd walked in late, he'd have given them detention instead. But the bias toward the Slytherins had been nothing but the one constant in any of Snape's classes.

They were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution. Unfortunately, Nott set up his cauldron right next to Faykan and Ron, who were in turn right in front of Harry and Draco, so that they were all preparing their ingredients on the same table.

"Sir," Nott called, waving his unbandaged hand to attract Snape's attention, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm…"

"Undol, partner with Nott so that he can make today's potion, Weasley will have to manage on his own for this lesson." Snape said, without even looking up.

Ron looked livid, but Faykan simply sighed and moved closer to Nott to work with his ingredients, chopping the roots expertly and quickly to make up for having to essentially start over. Harry saw Nott lean closer to Faykan and start whispering in his ear, causing Faykan to stiffen with anger. Harry could only hear bits and pieces of the half conversation.

"…he's complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of Magic too. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And with a lasting injury like this, who knows if my arm'll ever be the same again?"

Harry tried to tune him out, and focused on his and Draco's potion. As he started slicing dead caterpillars, Nott leaned closer to Faykan again, whispering too quietly for Faykan to hear, but out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Nott slip his uninjured hand under the table. Faykan jumped moments later and glared at Nott, who raised his eyebrows innocently before smirking wickedly.

A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned…

"Orange, Longbottom?" said Snape sarcastically, ladling some up and allowing to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see.

"Orange..." He repeated, "Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"

Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.

"Please, sir," said Hermione, "please, I could help Neville put it right…"

"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," snapped Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. Rounding back on Neville, Snape continued, "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."

Snape moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear.

"Help me!" he moaned to Hermione.

"Hey, Harry," said Seamus Finnigan, leaning over to borrow Harry's brass scales, "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning, they reckon Sirius Black's been sighted."

"Where?" said Harry and Draco quickly. At the table in front of them, Nott looked back, listening closely.

Seamus said that it wasn't far from Hogwarts, but he hadn't been caught as it was only a Muggle that had seen him, and he had been long gone when the Ministry had shown up.

"Not too far from here..." Draco repeated, looking significantly at Harry. He turned around and saw Nott watching closely. "What, Theodore?"

Nott sneered at Draco before turning to Harry, eyes shining malevolently, "Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handedly, Potter?"

"Yeah, that's right," said Harry offhandedly, not caring what the weedy menace had to say.

"Of course, if it was me," Nott said quietly, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy; I'd be out there looking for him."

"What are you talking about, Nott?" said Faykan roughly next to him, in such a pointed fashion that it caught Harry's attention.

"Don't you know, Potter?" breathed Nott, his pate eyes narrowed.

"Know what?" Harry said, only half as disinterested as he was previously. Faykan clearly knew something more about the situation with Sirius Black, and hadn't told him. Harry was slowly get fed up with his best friend keeping things like this from him.

The Slytherin let out a low, sneering laugh.

"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," Nott said, smirking at all the attention. "Want to leave it to the dementors, do you? But if it were me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."

"What are you talking about?" said Harry angrily.

But at that moment Snape called out. "You should have finished adding your ingredients by now; this potion needs to stew before it can be drunk, so clear away while it simmers and then we'll test Longbottom's..." he said, overriding anything that Harry, Faykan, Draco or Nott could have said more on their topic.

Crabbe and Goyle laughed openly, watching Neville sweat as he stirred his potion feverishly. Hermione was muttering instructions to him out of the corner of her mouth, so that Snape wouldn't see. Harry and Ron packed away their unused ingredients and went to wash their hands and ladles in the stone basin in the corner.

"What did Nott mean?" Harry muttered to Faykan as he stuck his hands under the icy jet that poured from the gargoyle's mouth, "Why would I want revenge on Black? He hasn't done anything to me… yet."

"He's making it up," said Faykan savagely. "He's trying to make you do something stupid..."

But even as Faykan said it, Harry could tell that there was something else that was left unsaid, in the way that Faykan's eyes darted away.

The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.

"Everyone gather 'round," said Snape, his black eyes glittering, "and watch what happens to Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned."

The Gryffindors watched fearfully. The Slytherins looked excited. Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville's potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor's throat.

There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm. The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.

"Five points from Gryffindor," said Snape, which wiped the smiles from every face. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."

Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione climbed the steps to the entrance hall. Harry was still thinking about what Nott had said, while Ron was seething about Snape.

"Five points from Gryffindor because the potion was all right! Why didn't you lie, Hermione? You should've said Neville did it all by himself!"

But Hermione didn't answer. Ron looked around.

"Where is she?" he asked, confused.

Harry turned too. They were at the top of the steps now, watching the rest of the class pass them, heading for the Great Hall and lunch.

"She was right behind us," said Ron, frowning.

Nott passed them, walking between Crabbe and Goyle. He smirked at Harry and Faykan, his eyes lingering for a few seconds on Faykan before disappearing up the marble staircase. Harry sorely wished that Faykan would tell him the truth of what he was hiding regarding their conversation, more than anything.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was hurrying back up the dungeon stairs, just in time to reach the spot she had left when using her Time-Turner.

"She was right behind us," she heard Ron saying.

As she mounted the stairs she saw Harry, Faykan and Ron waiting for her, utterly confused as to where she had gone.

"How did you do that?" said Ron.

"What?" Hermione said, feigning ignorance as she joined the three boys.

"One minute you were right behind us, the next moment, you were back at the bottom of the stairs again."

"What?" Hermione repeated, trying to look confused. "Oh, I had to go back for something. Oh no…"

A seam in her bag had split, spilling out several of her course books.

"Why are you carrying all these around with you?" Ron asked her.

"You know how many subjects I'm taking," Hermione retorted.

Before Ron could push the matter further, Faykan stepped forward and started picking up the books that fell on the floor. "You two go save us seats, I'll help Hermione with these. We'll be right behind you."

Ron and Harry shrugged, and proceeded over to the Great Hall, although Harry's eyes lingered longer. The other boy looked almost annoyed at something, but Hermione pushed that to one side, focusing on her torn bag and mending it with a spell. Hermione smiled at Faykan as he hefted her fallen books. "Thanks," she said, swiftly piling them back inside.

"For what, picking up your books, or distracting Ron?" Faykan retorted with a grin.

"Both," she replied simply, accepting that of all her friends, Faykan was likely the first to figure out her secret.

"You should take great care, Hermione," Faykan said abruptly, as they made their way across the entrance hall, "We're not a thick as you think, especially Ron. Maybe you had better drop a class or two and _turn_ that little secret in…"

Hermione stopped, eyeing Faykan suspiciously, as he just looked back at her with a funny little grin, like he had said nothing out of the ordinary. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said, emphasizing that she was doing quite well with keeping her method of travel a secret.

"Oh, but I think you do. Come on though, it's almost _time_ for Defense." Faykan retorted, and he walked off. Was it her imagination, but had he just implied that the others were actually starting to notice as well… no, Hermione scolded herself, she had been far too careful for anyone, aside from Faykan apparently, to notice completely, but then again…

She entered the Great Hall just in time to hear Ron saying to Harry, "D'you get the feeling Hermione's not telling us something?" and that worried her all the more.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Professor Lupin wasn't there when they arrived at his first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. They all sat down, took out their books, quills, and parchment, and were talking when he finally entered the room. Lupin smiled vaguely and placed his tatty old briefcase on the teacher's desk. He was as shabby as ever, Harry noted, but looked healthier than the Professor had seemed on the train, as though he had had a few square meals.

"Good afternoon," Professor Lupin said. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags; today will be a practical lesson. You will need only your wands."

A few curious looks were exchanged as the class put away their books. They had never had a practical Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson before, unless you counted the memorable class last year when Lockhart had brought a cageful of pixies to class and set them loose.

"Right then," said Professor Lupin, when everyone was ready, "if you'd follow me."

Puzzled, but interested, Harry got to his feet alongside the rest of the class, and together they followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom. He led them along the deserted corridor and stopped, right outside the staffroom door.

"Inside, please," Professor Lupin said, opening the door and standing back to let them pass. The staffroom, a long, paneled room full of old, mismatched chairs, was empty except for one teacher.

Professor Snape was sitting in a low armchair, and he looked around as the class filed in. His eyes were glittering darkly and there was a nasty sneer playing around his mouth. As Professor Lupin came in after the last of the class entered and made to close the door behind him, Snape spoke up, "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this."

Snape got to his feet and strode past the class, his black robes billowing behind him. At the doorway he turned on his heel and remarked, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear."

Neville went scarlet. Harry glared at Snape; it was bad enough that he bullied Neville in his own classes, let alone doing it in front of other teachers.

Professor Lupin; however, had only raised his eyebrows. "I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation," he replied, "and I am sure he will perform it admirably." Neville's face went, if possible, even redder. Snape's lip curled, but he left, shutting the door with a snap.

"Now, then," Professor Lupin said, beckoning the class toward the end of the room, where there was nothing but an old wardrobe where the teachers kept their spare robes. As Professor Lupin went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall.

"Nothing to worry about," said Professor Lupin calmly because a few people had jumped backward in alarm. "There's a boggart in there."

Most people seemed to feel that this was something to worry about. Neville gave Professor Lupin a look of pure terror, and Seamus Finnigan eyed the now rattling doorknob apprehensively.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks, I've even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice.

"So, the first question we must ask ourselves is: what is a boggart?" he continued, and Hermione put up her hand.

"It's a shape shifter," she said when Professor Lupin nodded at her. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."

"Couldn't have put it better myself," said Professor Lupin, smiling, and Hermione glowed. "So, the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears.

"This means," continued Professor Lupin, choosing to ignore Neville's small sputter of terror as he moved toward the wardrobe, "that we have a huge advantage over the boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?"

Trying to answer a question with Hermione next to him, bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet with her hand in the air, was very off-putting, but Harry tried anyway.

"Err… because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?" he said, half-guessing.

"Precisely," said Professor Lupin, and Hermione put her hand down, looking a little disappointed. "It's always best to have company when you're dealing with a boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh eating slug? I once saw a boggart make that very mistake; tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not even remotely frightening."

A few of the students sniggered at the thought, but silenced themselves when the wardrobe rattled again.

"The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind." Professor Lupin continued, pulling out his wand, "You see, the thing that really finishes a boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing. We will practice the charm without wands first. After me, please ... _Riddikulus_!"

" _Riddikulus_!" repeated the class together.

"Good," said Professor Lupin. "Very good, but that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, the word alone is not enough. And this is where you come in, Neville."

The wardrobe shook again, though not as much as Neville, who walked forward as though he were heading for the gallows.

"Right, Neville," said Professor Lupin. "First things first: what would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?"

Neville's lips moved, but no noise came out.

"Didn't catch that, Neville, sorry," said Professor Lupin cheerfully, encouraging him. Neville looked around rather wildly, as though begging someone to help him, and then said in barely more than a whisper, "Professor Snape."

Nearly everyone laughed. Even Neville grinned apologetically. Professor Lupin, however, looked thoughtful.

"Professor Snape... hmmm... yes, well he does frighten us all a little. Now Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?"

"Err… yes," said Neville nervously. "But, I don't want the boggart to turn into her either."

"No, no, you misunderstand me," said Professor Lupin, now also smiling. "I wonder, could you tell us what sort of clothes your grandmother usually wears?"

Neville looked startled, but said, "Well... always the same hat; a tall one, with a stuffed vulture on top of it. And a long dress... green, normally... and sometimes a fox fur scarf."

"And a handbag?" prompted Professor Lupin.

"A big red one," supplied Neville.

"Right then," said Professor Lupin. "Can you picture those clothes very clearly, Neville? Can you see them in your mind's eye?"

"Yes," said Neville uncertainty, plainly wondering what was coming next.

"When the boggart bursts out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it will assume the form of Professor Snape," said Lupin, demonstrating by turned to the wardrobe and raising his wand. "And you will raise your wand, thus, and cry _'Riddikulus'_ … and concentrate hard on your grandmother's clothes. If all goes well, Professor-Boggart Snape will be forced into that vulture-topped hat, and that green dress, with that big red handbag."

There was a great shout of laughter. The wardrobe wobbled more violently.

"If Neville is successful, the boggart is likely to shift his attention to each of us in turn," said Professor Lupin. "I would like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most, and imagine how you might force it to look comical..."

The room went quiet. Harry thought hard... What scared him most in the world?

His first thought was Lord Voldemort, a Voldemort returned to full strength. But before he had even started to plan a possible counterattack on a boggart-Voldemort, a horrible image came floating to the surface of his mind...

A rotting, glistening hand, slithering back beneath a black cloak... a long, rattling breath from an unseen mouth... then a cold so penetrating it felt like drowning...

Harry shivered, and looked around, hoping no one had noticed. Many people had their eyes shut tight. Faykan was watching Professor Lupin, while Ron was muttering to himself, "Take its legs off." Harry was sure he knew what that was about. Ron's greatest fear was spiders.

"Everyone ready?" said Professor Lupin.

Harry felt a lurch of fear. He wasn't ready. How could you make a dementor less frightening? But he didn't want to ask for more time; everyone else was nodding and rolling up their sleeves.

"Neville, we're going to back away," said Professor Lupin. "Let you have a clear field, all right? I'll call the next person forward... Everyone back, now, so Neville can get a clear shot…"

They all retreated, backed against the walls, leaving Neville alone beside the wardrobe. He looked pale and frightened, but he had pushed up the sleeves of his robes and was holding his wand ready.

"On the count of three, Neville," said Professor Lupin, who was pointing his own wand at the handle of the wardrobe, "one… two… three… now!"

A jet of sparks shot from the end of Professor Lupin's wand and hit the doorknob. The wardrobe burst open. Hook-nosed and menacing, Professor Snape stepped out, his eyes flashing at Neville.

Neville backed away, his wand up, mouthing wordlessly. Snape was bearing down upon him, reaching inside his robes.

" _R-r-riddikulus_!" squeaked Neville.

There was a noise like a whip crack. Snape stumbled; he was wearing a long, lace trimmed dress and a towering hat topped with a moth eaten vulture, and he was swinging a huge crimson handbag.

There was a roar of laughter; the boggart paused, confused, and Professor Lupin shouted, "Parvati! Forward!"

Parvati walked forward, her face set. Snape rounded on her. There was another crack, and where he had stood was a bloodstained, bandaged mummy; its sightless face was turned to Parvati and it began to walk toward her very slowly, dragging its feet, its stiff arms rising…

" _Riddikulus_!" cried Parvati.

A bandage unraveled at the mummy's feet; it became entangled, fell face forward, and its head rolled off.

"Seamus!" roared Professor Lupin.

Seamus darted past Parvati.

Crack! Where the mummy had been was a woman with floor length black hair and a skeletal, green tinged face… a banshee. She opened her mouth wide and an unearthly sound filled the room, a long, wailing shriek that made the hair on Harry's head stand on end. " _Riddikulus_!" shouted Seamus.

The banshee made a rasping noise and clutched her throat; her voice was gone.

Crack! The banshee turned into a rat, which chased its tail in a circle, then… crack! became a rattlesnake, which slithered and writhed before… crack! becoming a single, bloody eyeball.

"It's confused!" shouted Lupin. "We're getting there! Dean, you next!"

Dean hurried forward.

Crack! The eyeball became a severed hand, which flipped over and began to creep along the floor like a crab.

" _Riddikulus_!" yelled Dean.

There was a snap, and the hand was trapped in a mousetrap.

"Excellent! Ron!"

Ron leapt forward.

Crack!

Quite a few people screamed. A giant spider, six feet tall and covered in hair, was advancing on Ron, clicking its pincers menacingly. For a moment, Harry thought Ron had frozen. Then…

" _Riddikulus_!" bellowed Ron, and the spider's legs vanished; it rolled over and over; Lavender Brown squealed and ran out of its way and it came to a halt at Harry's feet. He raised his wand, ready, but…

"Faykan!" Professor Lupin cried.

Faykan stepped around Harry, an eager look on his face as he approached the boggart.

Crack!

Harry gasped, along with many of the others in the room, but it was more out of puzzlement rather than fright or surprise.

It seemed that a man had appeared before Faykan, slender and very tall, yet with a commanding and almost royal demeanor to him. With a start Harry recognized that the man's ears were pointed, like the descriptions of the elves anciently, but this figure had none of the attractive or beautiful qualities that he recalled being described to him by Faykan.

Faykan had frozen before this figure, neither moving nor attempting the incantation, even as the figure drew from within his robes an object: a ring of solid gold, with no jewel or decoration of any kind upon it, and placed the item upon his own forefinger.

"No…" Faykan said, hardly above a whisper, slowly raising his wand, as though fighting to command his own body to obey.

"Faykan, fight the fear!" Professor Lupin called encouragingly, even as the boggart stretched the ring-bearing hand toward Faykan.

" _Riddikulus_!" Faykan shouted, his wand snapping forward.

Crack!

But the boggart had not become amusing, if anything it grew greater and more terrible than before. It looked as though a dementor had appeared in front of Faykan, but it wasn't the same. The black robed figure had legs, and these along with its hands, arms and chest were covered in armor, as well as a great horned helmet covering its face. Upon its finger rested the same golden band, but now it burned with fiery letters along the outside, which caused the room to darkened as Harry determined that they were in some form of Elvish, a dialect that he did not recognize.

Faykan had frozen in fear once more.

The creature drew from with in its robes a large cruel looking sword, and then it began to speak, the guttural harsh words painful to even hear. Everyone covered their ears as the horrible sound bounced off the walls. It was worse than the banshee that Seamus' boggart had become, but Harry though he could hear… something amidst the high piercing notes of the creatures screams.

" _Shre nazg golugranu kilmi-nudu, Ombi kuzddurbagu gundum-ishi, Nugu gurgunkilu bard gurutu, Ash Burz-Durbagu burzum-ishi, Daghburz-ishi makha gulshu darulu…"_ Fear assaulted Harry in waves, and his body demanded that he run, hide, do something other than just stand there with this creature.

And yet he could do nothing, even as the figure advanced on Faykan slowly, the gauntleted hand bearing the fiery gold ring extending toward his best friend's face and the sinister spell continuing, _"_ _Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul… Daghburz-ishi makha gulshu darulu!_ _"_

Faykan fell backward onto the floor, grasping his chest, as an unearthly scream was torn from his lungs, adding to the din created by his boggart. He had dropped his wand and just lay there, curled in agony as the creature advanced slowly on him, raising the sword high, ready to stab it down into the boy.

Harry felt something snap within, some force that allowed him to overcome the fear produced by this creature, and he darted forward to defend Faykan, just as Professor Lupin also seemed to overcome the horror of the creature, and dived between Harry and the boggart, "Here!" he shouted, attracting the boggart's attention.

Crack!

The armored figure had vanished. For a second, everyone looked wildly around to see where it was. Then they saw a silvery white orb hanging in the air in front of Lupin, who said, " _Riddikulus_!" in a strained and weary voice.

Crack!

"Forward, Neville, and finish him off!" said Lupin, turning to aid Faykan and Harry as the boggart landed on the floor as a cockroach. Crack! Snape was back. This time Neville charged forward looking determined, if still shaken from the monstrous figure from moments ago.

" _Riddikulus_!" he shouted, and they had a split second's view of Snape in his lacy dress before Neville let out a great "Ha!" of laughter, and the boggart exploded, burst into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and was gone.

Harry was kneeling by Faykan, who hadn't moved from his place on the floor, although he had stopped screaming. The rest of the Gryffindors had circled around them, muttering amongst themselves, trying to figure out what Faykan's boggart had become.

Professor Lupin knelt on Faykan's other side, a chocolate bar already in hand, urging Faykan to open his mouth. Faykan did so, agonizingly slowly, and Lupin fed him the chocolate, asking Harry to make sure that Faykan chewed it, as he seemed reluctant to do it himself.

"Class dismissed, Oh… Let me see… five points to Gryffindor for every person to tackle the boggart, ten for Neville because he did it twice, and five each to Harry and Hermione."

"But I didn't do anything," said Harry, momentarily distracted from everything that just happened, and confused why he was focusing on such a strange detail.

"You and Hermione answered my questions correctly at the start of the class, Harry," Lupin said lightly, focusing back on Faykan. "Homework," he called to the rest of the class as they swiftly filed out, "kindly read the chapter on boggarts and summarize it for me... to be handed in on Monday."

The Gryffindors left, still muttering, until only Harry, Ron, Hermione and Professor Lupin were left with Faykan. "Professor, what's wrong with him?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"He's in shock. That creature functioned something like a dementor I heavily suspect, and if I make my guess right…" he ran a hand over Faykan's chest, where they all knew the scar was, and Faykan let out a whimper of pain.

"Yes," Professor Lupin said, sadly, "his wound had inflamed again. I'll need to take him to the hospital wing." Professor Lupin then lifted Faykan into his arms and led the way upstairs, with all three Gryffindors trailing right behind him.

 _Ui mo ecmentië anat i quete ier málo : no one may pass but those who speak as friends_

 _Shre nazg golugranu kilmi-nudu : Three Rings for the elven kings under the sky,_

 _Ombi kuzddurbagu gundum-ishi : Seven for the dwarf lords in their halls of stone_

 _Nugu gurgunkilu bard gurutu : Nine for mortal men doomed to die_

 _Ash Burz-Durbagu burzum-ishi : One for the Dark Lord, on his dark throne_

 _Daghburz-ishi makha gulshu darulu : In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie_

 _Ash nazg durbatulûk_ _: One ring to rule them all_

 _ash nazg gimbatul_ _: one ring to find them_

 _Ash nazg thrakatulûk_ _: one ring to bring them all_

 _agh burzum-ishi krimpatul_ _. : and in the darkness bind them_ _._

 _Daghburz-ishi makha gulshu darulu : In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned**

 _Lot's of paragraph juggling here, dividing the Hippogriff section between chapters because of chapter length. Otherwise, small additions here and there to tie together the enveloping plot between Harry and Faykan, as well as a large change at the end. Mnay will recall that Faykan's boggart was once the Witch King, but that was brought to my attention as not the best choice at the time, due to event later on where the Witch King returns and is fought directly by Faykan. therefore, I upgraded it to a fully restored version of Sauron, which for Faykan, and indeed all the Istari, would be the worst case scenario of any reality._

~F


	32. Y3-C6: Aftermath

_So, I'm rather amazed how quickly I was able to get this one edited, as my week has been rather hectic with the end of the semester rapidly approaching. Still, many thanks to those who review, and keep up the flow of good thoughts toward this pet project of mine, you are all the best of the best! Please, enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Six**

 **Aftermath**

Severus Snape swept through the corridors up to the hospital wing, uttering curses to Remus Lupin under his breath. Several first years ran to get out of his way as he strode around the last corner and burst into the room. How could the man be so foolish as to allow the third year to confront a boggart-dementor, or whatever similar creature that the shape shifter as assumed. On top of it all, the creature had caused Undol to drop back into his state of delirium that he had arrived to Hogwarts in…

Severus maneuvered toward the back bed where Poppy had already set the boy down and made him as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.

'At least he isn't screaming like last time', Severus thought sarcastically as he approached. Indeed, Undol was merely laying there, eyes staring off into space and his skin as cold as ice. Pausing, Severus momentarily thought that it would be preferable for the boy to be screaming, or at least doing something that indicated that the boy yet lived, instead of laying there in what appeared like near-death state.

"I've tried everything I can think of to bring him back to consciousness, but nothing has worked." Poppy said, looking very concerned.

It wasn't often that the extremely experienced matron was unable to heal a student's injury, but Undol was definitely not an ordinary student. Severus leaned close to check the boy's vital signs again, even though Poppy had said that they were stable. Blinking in surprise, Severus thought he heard a slight whisper escape Undol's near purple lips. Severus pulled back at first, surely the boy hadn't just spoken through the coma-like trance he was in. But despite himself he leaned close, straining to hear.

" _Ath..elas… Ath…elas…_ " came the faint murmuring.

Severus stood up suddenly, his mind racing. He had heard of that name somewhere. _Athelas_ , it was a plant; that much he remembered. Summoning a house elf, Severus called for several old books of Potion herbs and immediately started to search them. After what felt like several hours, he found it:

' _Athelas, also known as Kingsfoil._

 _Herb with powerful healing properties. The Athelas plant has long leaves that give off a sweet and pungent fragrance. The scent had a refreshing and invigorating effect on those who inhaled it. Athelas could be used to ease pain, and it also had the power to counteract the effects of the 'Black Breath' exuded by the Nazgûl, according to legend._ '

And written below was some sort of poem:

' _When the black breath blows_

 _and death's shadow grows_

 _and all lights pass,_

 _come Athelas! come Athelas!_

 _Life to the dying_

 _In the king's hand lying!_ '

"Poppy," Severus said hurriedly, and she bustled over to him, "Do you happen to have any Kingsfoil in your herb stocks?"

"Kingsfoil?" she said slightly confused, "Let me see." She half ran over to her store cupboards and started shuffling jars and boxes around. Severus reread the entry several times; thinking hard of how he could use the plant to help heal the boy.

"Ah, here's some. It's not much, only seven or eight leaves." Poppy said, returning with a small jar of leaves.

Severus snatched it away and studied them. "A bowl of boiling water, Poppy, quick."

As she summoned a bowl and filled it with boiling water from her wand, Severus set two of the eight leaves aside, for use right now on Undol. He would take the other six leaves and experiment on making a healing potion with them, Poppy wouldn't mind, as she clearly had no other use for them.

Afterward he crushed the two leaves into the boiling water and stirred it around with his wand, finally setting the bowl near Undol's head, hoping the legend was true. Several stressful minutes later, the boys eyes slowly refocused, and his breathing deepened as he returned to consciousness. Severus sat back in the chair he had summoned, sighing deeply; it had worked.

Undol inhaled deeply, and then looked around with a small smile on his face, "I smell _Athelas_ , was that your work, Professor?"

"Indeed it was Mr. Undol." Severus said with a small smirk. "But my question is why it was necessary? Would you please explain this…" he added, sliding a hand across the red wound on the boy's bare chest.

Undol hissed in pain at the pressure, but did not cry out. "If I knew sir, I would tell you." He said, but Severus could tell the boy was lying by the way Undol refused to look him in the eyes.

"Was it…" Severus consulted the book he had found Kingsfoil in, "A _Nazgûl_ , Mr. Undol?"

The boy's face paled slightly, but he still didn't answer. Severus merely nodded, "I thought so." And Severus strode away immediately, off to inform the Headmaster of this potentially important news regarding Mr. Faykan Undol. If the child had encountered a creature thought to be mere legend to the wizarding world, then what else was he hiding that could be equally dangerous?

Grimacing to himself, Severus recalled that the boy's father was much the same way. Holding vast amounts of secrets, even if called on it, and if Severus remembered correctly it was those very secrets that had led the man to his and his wife's deaths. He would not allow such information to be the death of the son as well.

He owed far too much to the memory of the Faykan Undol who had been his senior in Hogwarts to do nothing.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The story of the boggart assuming Snape's shape, and the way that Neville had dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, had traveled through the school like wildfire. Snape didn't seem to find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.

The story about Faykan collapsing due to his boggart; however, was the only story that was circling faster. Many people, mainly Nott and his group of Slytherins, kept bringing it up in the middle of classes. Others would confront them in the corridors too, which just lead to even more people bombarding Faykan with questions as to what the creature was, and why he had had such an attack from it.

Faykan had taken to walking the halls from class to class in his animagus form just to avoid the unwanted attention, and had coerced Harry into carrying him so he wouldn't be stepped on or delayed by curious people. Running around as an animal in a school full of children only afforded him a small reduction in stares and pointed fingers, but Faykan was more than willing to pay that lesser price.

Harry only consented because his friend had a point. Even with Harry carrying him from class to class, people still stopped him to coo at and stroke Faykan, thinking he was Harry's pet. "The only good thing out of this," Faykan had said, "is that I get extra food out of it, and sometimes a few people actually scratch a sweet spot."

As from the social woes, Harry was also growing to dread the hours he spent in Professor Trelawney's stifling tower room, deciphering lopsided shapes and symbols, trying to ignore the way Professor Trelawney's enormous eyes filled with tears every time she looked at him.

He couldn't bring himself to like Professor Trelawney, even though she was treated with respect bordering on reverence by many of the class. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had taken to haunting Professor Trelawney's tower room at lunch times, and always returned with annoyingly superior looks on their faces, as though they knew things that others didn't. They had also started using hushed voices whenever they spoke to Harry, as though he were on his deathbed.

Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action packed first class, had become extremely dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence. They were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence.

"Why would anyone bother looking after them?" said Ron, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the flobberworms' throats.

At the start of October, however, Harry had something else to occupy his time, something so enjoyable it more than made up for his unsatisfactory classes. The Quidditch season was approaching, and Oliver Wood, Captain of the Gryffindor team, had started training sessions three evenings a week.

The weather was getting colder and wetter, the nights darker, but no amount of mud, wind, or rain could tarnish Harry's wonderful vision of finally winning the huge, silver Quidditch Cup.

Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room one evening after training, cold and stiff but pleased with the way practice had gone, to find the room buzzing excitedly.

"What's happened?" he asked Ron and Hermione, who were sitting in two of the best chairs by the fireside and completing some star charts for Astronomy while Faykan the fox rested; curled on Ron's lap.

"First Hogsmeade weekend," said Ron, pointing at a notice that had appeared on the battered old bulletin board. "End of October, Halloween."

"Excellent," said Fred, who had followed Harry through the portrait hole. "I need to visit Zonko's. I'm nearly out of Stink Pellets."

Harry sat next to Ron, a smile creeping on his face, as Faykan leapt across to Harry's lap, brushing against his chest and practically begging for Harry to run his hands through his soft black fur. Harry rolled his eyes at his furry friend, "Honestly Fay, you really want me to treat you like a pet, don't you." If foxes could smile, Harry was sure Faykan would be grinning from ear to ear.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Crookshanks was enjoying this new home that his mistress had brought him to. He had all the space he wanted, even with the hundreds of other cats that lived in the huge building with him.

Crookshanks had met a few of the other cats in the last few days, and they had all said that it would be wise for him to avoid one 'Mrs. Norris', as she was very rude and obsessed with helping her master catch the children when they had done things that displeased the old man. Crookshanks didn't know what would make a cat act that way, but had decided to just take the advice as it was.

He had met several other creatures in his explorations of the grounds, but none had been nearly as interesting as the large, shaggy, black dog that wasn't a dog.

The larger animal tried to hide on the edges of the forest, but Crookshanks had seen him, and had confronted him about his shady behavior. It had been difficult for him to understand the dog-man, as if he wasn't used to speaking, which Crookshanks found extremely odd.

However, he could understand enough to learn that the dog man was desperate to get inside the castle, specifically the tower rooms where Crookshanks' mistress and her friends lived. Crookshanks had a feeling that it must be related to the rat-man, because the dog had the same scents on him, yet he was different from the rat-man; less dangerous.

Crookshanks had agreed to help the dog-man enter the castle after his mistress and her friends left for the day, just in case they tried to stop them. He was now scouting out the lower room for other ways to get in without going past the big picture door of the pink woman.

Mistress was sitting in a big chair next to the red and black haired boys. Lying on the black haired boy's lap was the old fox. Not only was he hiding that he was old but he was hiding that he was a person now? Crookshanks was certain that he would never understand humans…

He leapt onto his mistress lap, a small snack clutched in his mouth: a spider.

"Does he have to eat that in front of us?" said the red haired boy, scowling. He definitely didn't like Crookshanks, and that confused the cat to no end. All he had ever done to the boy was tried to save his life from the rat man.

"Clever Crookshanks, did you catch that all by yourself?" said Mistress. Crookshanks purred while he ate the spider, watching the red haired boy for any signs of agitation. Hopefully he would mention where the rat-man was hidden so Crookshanks could try again to stop him.

"Just keep him over there, that's all," said the boy irritably, turning back to his paper. "I've got Scabbers asleep in my bag."

And there it was, just the information Crookshanks had wanted. He glanced over at the black haired boy as he yawned loudly, and noticed the old fox watching him intently. There was something odd in that piercing blue gaze, and the smells coming from the old one were so strange that Crookshanks hesitated slightly. He could smell the scents unique to the fox person, but also the scent of the black haired boy. Not too odd, seeing he was lying on said boy, but the old fox was saturated in the boy's scent, as if it was part of him as well. Crookshanks pondered this for a few more seconds, and then promptly dismissed it, it was not his problem because the old fox was not a threat to his mistress, but the rat-man was.

He pounced, landing squarely on the red haired boy's bag and began tear at it; searching for the rat-man's hiding spot. "OY!" the boy yelled, grabbing the bag, "GET OFF, YOU STUPID ANIMAL!"

The boy started spinning the bag in the air, trying to dislodge Crookshanks, but only succeeded in sending the rat-man flying from his hiding place.

"CATCH THAT CAT" the boy yelled as Crookshanks freed himself from the remnants of the bag, sprang over the table, and chased after the terrified rat.

The rat dived under a large chest of drawers. Crookshanks skidded to a halt, crouched low on his bandy legs, and started making furious swipes beneath it with his front paw.

The red head and mistress hurried over, and mistress grabbed Crookshanks around the middle and pulled him away. The red haired boy flattened himself and pulled out the struggling rat-man by the tail.

They began arguing with each other, but Crookshanks was busy watching the old fox. While everyone in the room had stood or moved to watch the spectacle the children were making, the old fox had simply jumped to an arm of the chair and settled down to watch with mild curiosity.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Ron was still in a bad mood with Hermione next day. He barely talked to her all through Herbology, even though he, Harry, Faykan, and Hermione were working together on the same puffapod. He continued to sulk the entire way up to Transfiguration class, almost coming to a boiling point while they were waiting for Professor McGonagall to arrive.

Lavender Brown seemed to be crying. Parvati had her arm around her and was explaining something to Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were looking very serious.

"What's the matter, Lavender?" said Hermione anxiously as she, Harry, Faykan the fox, and Ron went to join the group.

"She got a letter from home this morning," Parvati whispered. "It's her rabbit, Binky. He's been killed by a fox." She glared at Faykan in Harry's arms, as if he was the guilty animal.

"Oh," said Hermione, "I'm sorry, Lavender."

"I should have known!" said Lavender tragically. "You know what day it is?"

"Err…" Hermione replied, confused at why that was important

"The sixteenth of October!" Lavender replied moodily, before she started to quote the mannerisms of Professor Trelawney, "That thing you're dreading, it will happen on the sixteenth of October!' Remember? She was right, she was right!"

The whole class was gathered around Lavender now. Seamus shook his head seriously. Hermione hesitated; then she said, "You... you were dreading Binky being killed by a fox?"

"Well, not necessarily by a fox," said Lavender, looking up at Hermione with streaming eyes, "but I was obviously dreading him dying, wasn't l?"

"Oh," said Hermione. She paused again. "Was Binky an old rabbit?"

"N-no!" sobbed Lavender. "H-he was only a baby!"

Parvati tightened her arm around Lavender's shoulders.

"But then, why would you dread him dying?" asked Hermione, trying to draw how the points fit together in the other girl's mind.

Parvati glared at her. Clearly she did not like her reasoning picked apart.

"Well, look at it logically," continued Hermione, turning to the rest of the group, "I mean, Binky didn't even die today, did he? Lavender just got the news today," Lavender wailed loudly, but it didn't stop Hermione, "and she can't have been dreading it, because it's come as a real shock…"

"Don't mind Hermione, Lavender," said Ron loudly, "she doesn't think other people's pets matter very much."

Professor McGonagall opened the classroom door at that moment, which was perhaps lucky; Hermione and Ron were glaring daggers at each other, and when they got into the classroom, they seated themselves on either side of Harry and didn't speak to each other for the entire lesson.

Harry was about to get up and head for the door as the bell rang, when Professor McGonagall called them all back.

"One moment, please!" she called as the class made to leave. "As you're all in my House, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Halloween. No form, no visiting the village. So don't forget!"

Neville put up his hand. "Please, Professor, I-I think I've lost…" he started.

"Your grandmother sent yours to me directly, Longbottom," said Professor McGonagall. "She seemed to think it was safer. Well, that's all, you may leave."

Faykan poked Harry in the back from his seat behind him, and nodded at Professor McGonagall, pulling the two forms out of his bag. They made their way up to her, smiles plastered on their faces as Faykan handed her the signed forms. She read them quickly and the frowned down at both of them, which caused their hearts to sink slightly.

"I'm sorry boys, but Professor Dumbledore has deemed it necessary that you both not be allowed to go to Hogsmeade."

They both started to complain loudly, demanding reasons why they weren't allowed, and that it was unfair that they couldn't go even with signed permission forms. She refused to budge even an inch, or to explain the Headmaster's reasoning. Finally she turned to look at them with an odd expression on her face. Was it pity? "I'm really sorry, boys, but that's my final word. You had better hurry, or you'll be late for your next lesson."

There was nothing to be done. Ron called Professor McGonagall a lot of names that greatly annoyed Hermione. She, on the other hand, assumed an 'all-for-the-best' expression that made Ron even angrier.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry had to endure everyone in the class talking loudly and happily about what they were going to do first once they got into Hogsmeade. Faykan had a sour look on his face, but didn't say anything concerning the matter.

"There's always the feast," said Ron, in an effort to cheer them both up. "You know, the Halloween feast, in the evening."

"Yeah," said Harry gloomily, "great."

The Halloween feast was always good, but it would taste a lot better if he was coming to it after a day in Hogsmeade with everyone else. Nothing anyone said made him feel any better about being left behind. Ron halfheartedly suggested the Invisibility Cloak, but Hermione stamped on that one, reminding Ron what Dumbledore had told them about the dementors being able to see through them. Percy hadwhat were possibly the least, helpful words of comfort.

"They make a fuss about Hogsmeade, but I assure you, it's not all it's cracked up to be," he said seriously. "All right, the sweet shop's rather good, and Zonko's Joke Shop's frankly dangerous, and yes, the Shrieking Shack's always worth a visit, but really, apart from that, you're not missing anything."

Faykan had merely rolled his eyes at Percy, and proceeded to ignore the Head Boy from that point on.

On Halloween morning, Harry awoke with the rest and went down to breakfast feeling thoroughly depressed, though doing his best to act normally.

"We'll bring you both lots of sweets back from Honeydukes," said Hermione, looking desperately sorry for them.

"Yeah, loads," said Ron. He and Hermione had finally forgotten their squabble about Crookshanks in the face of Faykan and Harry's difficulties.

"Don't worry about us," said Harry, in what he hoped was an offhand voice; "we'll see you at the feast. Have a good time."

He accompanied them to the entrance hall where Filch, the caretaker, was standing inside the front doors checking off names on a long list. He was peering suspiciously into every face, and making sure that no one was sneaking out who shouldn't be going.

"Staying here, Potter?" shouted Nott, who was standing in line with Crabbe and Goyle. "Scared of passing the dementors?"

Harry ignored him and made his way back up the marble staircase, towards Gryffindor Tower.

"Password?" said the Fat Lady, jerking out of a doze.

"Fortuna Major," said Harry listlessly.

The portrait swung open and he climbed through the hole into the common room. It was full of chattering first and second years, and a few older students, who had obviously visited Hogsmeade so often the novelty had worn off.

"Harry! Harry! Hi, Harry!"

It was Colin Creevey, a second year who was deeply in awe of Harry and never missed an opportunity to speak to him. He was sitting in a circle of chairs with other first and second years, with Faykan the fox held in his arms, and Colin was petting him absently. Faykan was trying to brace himself against each stroke of Colin's hand; obviously he still hadn't understood that he was petting too hard, despite Faykan's constant hints when in human form.

"Aren't you going to Hogsmeade, Harry? Why not? Hey," Colin looked eagerly around at his friends, "you can come and sit with us, if you like, Harry!"

"Err… no thanks, Colin," said Harry, who wasn't in the mood to have a lot of people staring avidly at the scar on his forehead. "I… I've got to go to the library, got to get some work done."

After that, he had no choice but to turn right around and head back out of the portrait hole again. Faykan squirmed out of Colin's grasp and dived out of the portrait hole after Harry, changing when it had closed fully.

"What was the point of waking me up?" the Fat Lady called grumpily after them as he walked away.

Together Faykan and Harry wandered toward the library, Faykan complaining about Colin as they walked. Halfway there, Harry changed his mind; he didn't feel like working. They turned around and came face to face with Filch, who had obviously seen off the last of the Hogsmeade visitors.

"What are you doing?" Filch snarled suspiciously.

"Nothing," said Harry truthfully.

"Nothing!" spat Filch, his jowls quivering unpleasantly. "A likely story! Sneaking around on your own, why aren't you in Hogsmeade buying Stink Pellets and Belch Powder and Whizzing Worms like the rest of your nasty little friends?"

Faykan shrugged.

"Well, get back to your common room where you belong!" snapped Filch. He stood glaring until they both had passed out of sight.

But Faykan didn't want to go back to the common room; so they climbed a staircase, Harry thinking vaguely of visiting the Owlery to see Hedwig, and were walking along another corridor when a voice from inside one of the rooms said, "Harry?"

They both doubled back to see who had spoken and met Professor Lupin, looking around his office door.

"What are you two doing?" said Lupin, though in a very different voice from Filch. "Where are Ron and Hermione?"

"Hogsmeade," said Harry, in a would-be casual voice.

"Ah," said Lupin. He considered Harry for a moment. "Why don't you two come in? I've just taken delivery of a grindylow for our next lesson."

"A what?" said Harry.

They followed Lupin into his office. In the corner of the room stood a very large tank of water, in which a sickly green creature with sharp little horns had its face pressed against the glass, pulling faces and flexing its long, spindly fingers.

"Water demon," said Lupin, surveying the grindylow thoughtfully. "We shouldn't have much difficulty with him, not after the kappas. The trick is to break his grip. You notice the abnormally long fingers? Strong, but very brittle."

The grindylow bared its green teeth and then buried itself in a tangle of weeds in a corner of its tank.

"Cup of tea?" Lupin said, looking around for his kettle. "I was just thinking of making one."

Faykan nodded absently, still watching the grindylow.

"All right," Harry added awkwardly.

Lupin tapped the kettle with his wand and a blast of steam issued suddenly from the spout.

"Sit down," said Lupin, taking the lid off a dusty tin. "I've only got teabags, I'm afraid, but I daresay you've had enough of tea leaves?"

Faykan laughed half heartedly, while Harry looked at him. Lupin's eyes were twinkling.

"How did you know about that?" Harry asked.

"Professor McGonagall told me," said Lupin, passing Harry and Faykan a pair of chipped mugs of tea. "You're not worried, are you?"

"No," said Harry.

He thought for a moment of telling Lupin about the dog they'd seen in Magnolia Crescent but decided not to. He didn't want Lupin to think he was a coward, especially since Lupin already seemed to think he couldn't cope with a boggart.

Something of Harry's thoughts seemed to have shown on his face, because Lupin said, "Anything worrying you, Harry?"

"No," Harry lied. He drank a bit of tea and watched the grindylow brandishing a fist at him. "Yes," he said suddenly, putting his tea down on Lupin's desk. "You know that day we fought the boggart?"

"Yes," said Lupin slowly. He eyed Faykan for a moment before returning his attention back to Harry.

"Why didn't you let me fight it?" said Harry abruptly.

Lupin raised his eyebrows.

"Well, besides the fact that I needed to handle the, uh… situation quickly," he glanced at Faykan again, who was staring down into his cup of tea, "I would have thought that was obvious, Harry,"

Harry, who had expected Lupin to deny that he'd done any such thing, was taken aback.

"Why?" he said again.

"Well," said Lupin, frowning slightly, "I assumed that if the boggart faced you, it would assume the shape of Lord Voldemort."

Harry stared. Not only was this the last answer he'd expected, but Lupin had said Voldemort's name. The only person Harry had ever heard say the name aloud, apart from himself and Faykan, was Professor Dumbledore.

"Clearly, I was wrong," said Lupin, still frowning at Harry. "But I didn't think it a good idea for Lord Voldemort to materialize in the staffroom right after that other creature..." he hesitated and sent another glance at Faykan before continuing, "I imagined that people would panic further."

"I didn't think of Voldemort," said Harry honestly. "I… I remembered those dementors."

"I see," said Lupin thoughtfully. "Well, well... I'm impressed." He smiled slightly at the look of surprise on Harry's face. "That suggests that what you fear most of all is fear. That is very wise, Harry."

Harry didn't know what to say to that, so he drank some of his tea.

"So you've been thinking that I didn't believe you capable of fighting the boggart?" said Lupin shrewdly.

"Well... yeah," said Harry. He was suddenly feeling a lot happier. "Professor Lupin, you know the dementors…"

He was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," called Lupin.

The door opened, and in came Snape. He was carrying a goblet, which was smoking faintly, and stopped at the sight of Harry and Faykan, his black eyes narrowing.

"Ah, Severus," said Lupin, smiling. "Thanks very much. Could you leave it here on the desk for me?"

Snape set down the smoking goblet, his eyes wandering between Harry, Faykan, and Lupin.

"I was just showing these boys my grindylow," said Lupin pleasantly, pointing at the tank.

"Fascinating," said Snape, without looking at it. "You should drink that directly, Lupin."

"Yes, Yes, I will," said Lupin.

"I made an entire cauldron-full," Snape continued, "if you need more."

"I should probably take some again tomorrow. Thanks very much, Severus."

"Not at all," said Snape, but there was a look in his eye Harry didn't like. He backed out of the room, unsmiling and watchful.

Harry looked curiously at the goblet. Lupin smiled.

"Professor Snape has very kindly concocted a potion for me," he said. "I have never been much of a potion brewer and this one is particularly complex." He picked up the goblet and sniffed it. "Pity sugar makes it useless," he added, taking a sip and shuddering. Faykan sniffed loudly, which caused both Harry and Professor Lupin to look at him, but he just shook his head and returned to his tea.

"Why…?" Harry began. Lupin looked at him and answered the unfinished question.

"I've been feeling a bit off-color," he said. "This potion is the only thing that helps. I am very lucky to be working alongside Professor Snape; there aren't many wizards who are up to making it."

Professor Lupin took another sip and Harry had a crazy urge to knock the goblet out of his hands.

"So," Professor Lupin said, glancing at Faykan again, probably hoping to ease some of the tension between them, "May I ask you Mr. Undol, what creature that was that your boggart turned into?"

Faykan mumbled something into his teacup, but Harry couldn't understand him, "What was that?" Lupin said.

"It was a…" Faykan paused for a moment, then drew a deep breath and continued, "It was something ancient and terrible… and hopefully gone forever…"

"Professor Snape seems to be under the impression that it was a… now what was it called… oh yes, a _Nazgûl_." Professor Lupin added, seeming to try and be cheerful about the subject.

"A what?" asked Harry, although he was actually very aware of what a _Naz'gûl_ was, and how the creature that had appeared was not one of the Nine, but to his surprise Professor Lupin answered without skipping a beat.

"A _Nazgûl_ , Harry. Basically, it is a greater type of dementor. According to legend, they were the original creators of the dementors, marking their victims with darkness that consumed their bodies and transformed their spirits into hungering wraiths of shadow and cold…"

Faykan shivered slightly, and Professor Lupin stopped at once. He drained the goblet and pulled a face. "Disgusting," he said. "Well, boys, I'd better get back to work. See you at the feast later."

Faykan merely nodded again and stood. "Right," said Harry, putting down his own empty teacup.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You have Been Warned**

 _Well, with the change from the Witch King to Sauron himself as the boggart there needed some large changes to represent that, even though the wizarding adults wouldn't know either way, and could only go off of what they learned from outside sources, but I feel that added a better background of just how much information that was lost in the changes of the world._

 _For the handful that ask about Severus being able to use Kingsfoil like Aragorn, no he is not of the direct line of kings, but all wizarding people are decended from Arwen and Elessar, which gave them the gift of magic and long life, as well as other skills and abilities that the two possessed, including the healing hands of the king. that will be addressed more in context later on, when more is revealed to the characters._

 _ _Again, many thanks to you all for support! ~F__


	33. Y3-C7: Safety and Happiness

_Was flying all day Wednesday, so please excuse the tardiness of this chapter. ~F_

 **Chapter Seven**

 **Safety and Happiness**

Sirius Black waited at the edge of the Forbidden Forest for his friend Crookshanks to come, signaling the all clear for him to enter Hogwarts. Sirius planned to enter and kill Peter during the Halloween feast, making sure that most, if not all of the students would be in the Great Hall and out of the common rooms.

The sun was starting to set when Crookshanks appeared, and Sirius set off, disguised as the large grim. Together they clambered through one of the many secret passageways into the castle and made their way up the staircases towards Gryffindor Tower. If not for his single-mindedness to kill Peter, Sirius would have been ecstatic about being inside Hogwarts again, his first true home.

They pounded down the last corridor before reaching the fat lady's portrait, and skidded to a halt. Coming around the corner from the other direction as a large, jet black fox. Crookshanks eyed it, clearly knowing something about it, but Sirius couldn't understand his feline friend well enough to ask what.

The fox didn't move however; it simply paused upon seeing Sirius' animagus form, and he assumed that it was just an animal, and could easily be ignored. Approaching the fat lady, he transformed back into a human. "Password…" she said, eyeing him.

"My dear Lady," Sirius began, his voice raspy from disuse, "Wouldn't you let this one slide, just once… I remember you thought very fondly of me when I was at school. Do you remember? I was just hoping to pop up and see the common room once more, what do you say?"

She glared at him, "No password; no entrance. That's the rule." She said hotly.

'Blast, I'm so close!' Sirius thought angrily, fury surging through him.

The bloody rat was right there, right on the other side of that door. And he couldn't get in. He slammed his fist on the portrait in fury. "Let me in!" he demanded, but the fat lady just watched him rage, wide eyed and frightened. Sirius continued to beat and scratch at the painting, finally slashing it several time with his large knife. As he drew it the fat lady screamed and dove into the painting next to her. Again and again he cut and torn at the painting, hoping that he could force the door to open.

The fat lady was running now, up the stairs through the portraits, screaming and crying as loud as ever. Crookshanks clawed Sirius' leg to get his attention, clearly telling him to run. Sirius bolted, diving down the stairs as he changed into the grim, Crookshanks at his heels. Looking back Sirius could see the fox just sitting there, calmly watching him flee. Almost sorrowfully… But surely not, that was an odd emotion to see on the face of an animal. Sirius dove through the secret passageway just as students started emerging onto the marble staircase, coming from the feast.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Professor Dumbledore sent all the Gryffindors back to the Great Hall after the discovery of the Fat Lady's portrait, and they were joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, all of whom looked extremely confused.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who was looking immensely proud and important. "Send word with one of the ghosts."

Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing these..."

One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

"Sleep well," said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him. The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the Gryffindors were telling the rest of the school what had just happened.

"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"

"C'mon," Ron said to Harry, Faykan, and Hermione; they seized four sleeping bags and dragged them into a corner. As they settled them down, they were joined by Draco, who strode over from the Slytherins.

"Do you think Black's still in the castle?" Draco whispered as he dropped his sleeping bag next to Faykan's.

"Dumbledore obviously thinks he might be," said Faykan.

"It's very lucky he picked tonight, you know," said Hermione as they all climbed fully dressed into their sleeping bags and propped themselves on their elbows to talk. "The one night we weren't in the tower..."

"I reckon he's lost track of time, being on the run," said Ron. "Didn't realize it was Halloween. Otherwise he'd have come bursting in here."

"Unless…" Faykan muttered. Harry looked at him anxiously, but he shook his head.

All around them, people were asking one another the same question: "How did he get in?"

"Maybe he knows how to Apparate," said a Ravenclaw a few feet away. "Just appear out of thin air, you know."

"Disguised himself, probably," said a Hufflepuff fifth year.

"He could've flown in," suggested Dean Thomas.

"Honestly, am I the only person who's ever bothered to read Hogwarts, A History?" said Hermione crossly to Harry and Ron, while Faykan and Draco laughed behind their hands.

"Obviously…" Draco said sarcastically.

"The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"

The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. What with that, and the whispering that still filled the hall, Harry felt as though he were sleeping outdoors in a light wind.

Once every hour, a teacher would reappear in the hall to check that everything was quiet. Around three in the morning, when many students had finally fallen asleep, Professor Dumbledore came in. Harry watched him looking around for Percy, who had been prowling between the sleeping bags, telling people off for talking. Percy was only a short way away from Harry, Ron, Faykan, Draco and Hermione, who quickly pretended to be asleep as Dumbledore's footsteps drew nearer.

"Any sign of him, Professor?" asked Percy in a whisper.

"No. All well here?" Dumbledore replied.

"Everything is under control here, sir." Percy added, sounding quite smug.

"Good." Dumbledore said, "There's no point moving them all now. I've found a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor portrait hole. You'll be able to move them back in tomorrow."

"And the Fat Lady, sir?" Percy asked.

"Hiding in a map of Argyllshire on the second floor," Dumbledore answered. "Apparently she refused to let Black in without the password, so he attacked. She's still very distressed, but once she's calmed down, I'll have Mr. Filch restore her."

Harry heard the door of the hall creak open again, and more footsteps. "Headmaster?" Snape's voice said. Harry kept quite still, listening hard. "The whole of the third floor has been searched. He's not there. And Filch has done the dungeons; nothing there either."

"What about the Astronomy tower? Professor Trelawney's room? The Owlery?" Dumbledore asked.

"All searched." Was the response.

"Very well, Severus. I didn't really expect Black to linger." The Headmaster replied, sounded rather tired himself

"Have you any theory as to how he got in, Professor?" asked Snape.

Harry raised his head very slightly off his arms to free his other ear.

"Many, Severus, each of them as unlikely as the next." Dumbledore said

Harry opened his eyes a fraction and squinted up to where they stood; Dumbledore's back was to him, but he could see Percy's face, rapt with attention, and Snape's profile, which looked angry.

"Might it be possible, Headmaster…" the Potions Master said, "I don't recall seeing Undol at the feast, or perhaps the, ah… other person we discussed when you appointed…"

"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it," replied Dumbledore, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn't reply. "I must go down to the dementors," Dumbledore added. "I said I would inform them when our search was complete."

"Didn't they want to help, sir?" said Percy.

"Oh yes," said Dumbledore coldly. "But I'm afraid no dementor will cross the threshold of this castle while I am Headmaster."

Percy looked slightly abashed. Dumbledore left the hall, walking quickly and quietly. Snape stood for a moment, watching the headmaster with an expression of deep resentment on his face; then he too left.

Harry glanced sideways at his friends. They all had their eyes open too, and they were all staring at Faykan, who was watching Dumbledore leaving the Great Hall.

"Fay," Harry began softly, "Where were you during the feast anyway?"

Faykan looked back at him, his blue eyes sparkling with the reflected light from the enchanted ceiling, "I was in our training room… studying…"

The others might have taken that sort of answer, but to Harry's well trained ears, he could hear the tiniest of quivers that occurred whenever his best friend lied to him.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus slumped into his office chair, releasing a repressed shudder. He had just come back from informing the dementors that Sirius Black was no longer in the castle. Thankfully, there was a steaming cup of hot chocolate waiting for him on his desk, which he drank greedily from. Silently he thanks Poppy for knowing when such things were needed.

How he hated the dementors. In Albus' mind, they were the epitome of the darkness that he sought to combat, and yet the Ministry sought to use these creatures, as if they could extend any means of control over them.

Albus shook his head sadly at the thought, and turned back to the book he had recently acquired from the restricted section. Severus had given him a very important clue, Albus thought, to the mystery of one Mr. Faykan Undol. The book: _'Creatures of Utter Darkness'_ helped slightly to describe the being that Remus had witnessed Faykan's boggart become. Severus had given the final clue, their name that he had found in a potion's book of all places; Nazgûl.

Albus bent over the book to read the frighteningly short entry:

' _The Nazgûl; Nine beings, rendered little more than phantoms wandering the planes of the physical world, are probably considered one of the most deadly and powerful dark creatures that ever walked the earth. They are invisible to both muggle and wizard alike; if not for the black robes they wear to mark their path across our world. There have only been accounts of nine of these beings to ever exist, although the possibility of more is not impossible._

 _Their main weapon is fear itself, along with the poison that permeates their physical weapons, which if not healed can cause the victim to become a wraith, similar to themselves but completely under their control. It is noted that according to legend that these beings are the original creators of dementors. Close or prolonged encounters with a Nazgûl is said to cause unconsciousness and nightmares, an effect known as 'the Black Breath.' The only known cure for this condition seems to be the herb Athelas, or Kingsfoil as it is more commonly known...'_

Albus sighed, there was little here to work with. This book confirmed that a Nazgûl had caused the wound on Faykan's chest, and the boggart's appearance confirmed that the boy had probably encountered one, but that simply led to many more questions. Where in the world could the boy have encountered such a being, and how did he survive? Unless…. There was no research signifying that a boggart assuming a fear of something that had not been experienced by the victim, which left Albus with little choice but to assume this, as much as he'd prefer to think that the young boy had simply an overactive imagination and far too many tomes of lore at his disposal, which being the scion of Undol was very likely.

Albus pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment and started to write all the things he had discovered about Mr. Undol since he had arrived at Hogwarts two years ago, looking for connections, oddities, anything…

If he could even find the tiniest scrap of reasoning behind Faykan's seemingly great knowledge and power, Albus would much rather run with that rather than the other possibilities, such as the boy being a plant from Voldemort or some other villain that wanted close access to Harry.

Albus knew that the green eyed boy was indeed special, which was why he had done so much in preparation for his protection once he was aware that the Fidelius Charm had failed, including a few things that he regretted in their necessity over Harry's happiness. But for the greater good of Harry's survival, Albus had done what he must, and wouldn't allow anyone with ill intentions to get too close to the boy now. Not after all that they mutually had gone through to make it this far in the boy's life.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The school talked of nothing but Sirius Black for the next few days. The theories about how he had entered the castle became wilder and wilder; Hannah Abbott, from Hufflepuff, spent much of their next Herbology class telling anyone who'd listen that Black could turn into a flowering shrub.

The Fat Lady's ripped canvas had been taken off the wall and replaced with the portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat gray pony. Nobody was very happy about this. Sir Cadogan spent half his time challenging people to duels, and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords, which he changed at least twice a day.

"He's a complete lunatic," complained Seamus Finnigan angrily to Percy. "Can't we get anyone else?"

"None of the other pictures wanted the job," said Percy. "Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer." Faykan snorted loudly, mentioning to Harry that it was more likely foolishness than bravery.

Sir Cadogan, however, was the least of Harry's worries. He was now being closely watched. Teachers found excuses to walk along corridors with him, and Percy Weasley (acting, Harry suspected, on his mother's orders) was tailing him everywhere like an extremely pompous guard dog. To cap it all, Professor McGonagall summoned Harry into her office, with such a somber expression on her face Harry thought someone must have died.

"There's no point hiding it from you any longer, Potter," she said in a very serious voice. "I know this will come as a shock to you, but Sirius Black…"

"I know he's after me," said Harry wearily. "I heard Ron's dad telling his mum. Mr. Weasley works for the Ministry of Magic."

Professor McGonagall seemed very taken aback. She stared at Harry for a moment or two, and then said, "I see! Well, in that case, Potter, you'll understand why I don't think it's a good idea for you to be practicing Quidditch in the evenings. Out on the field with only your team members, it's very exposed, Potter…"

"We've got our first match on Saturday!" said Harry, outraged. "I've got to train, Professor!"

Professor McGonagall considered him intently. Harry knew she was deeply interested in the Gryffindor team's prospects; it had been she, after all, who'd suggested him as Seeker in the first place. He waited, holding his breath.

"Hmm..." Professor McGonagall stood up and stared out of the window at the Quidditch field, just visible through the rain. "Well... goodness knows I'd like to see us win the Cup at last... but all the same, Potter... I'd be happier if a teacher were present. I'll ask Madam Hooch to oversee your training sessions."

Harry, Ron, Draco and Hermione spent more and more time in the Room of Requirement with Faykan, just to avoid the push of people trying to watch Harry. Ron and Hermione kept practicing with their weapons and spell casting, supervised by Faykan and Draco, while Harry worked on homework, read from his books, or simply watched his friends as they trained.

The day before the Quidditch match, they were relaxing in the sitting area of the room, and Faykan stood to speak, "It is time for me to prepare you all for the more advanced skills that I want to teach you." Hermione looked up from her book, while Ron pumped his arm in the air triumphantly.

Harry waited, eager to hear what Faykan was talking about.

"But," he said, which caused Ron to pause, "before I can teach you anything, you all need to learn Occlumency; the art of shielding one's mind."

"Why?" Draco asked, looking perplexed.

"Because, if… certain people… discovered what I was teaching you, they would stop at nothing to prevent you learning it. Therefore, to hide what you know, all four of you need to learn to cloud you minds from intruders."

Faykan motioned for them all to gather around the table, where the black orb was still sitting, covered in its cloth. "To help you all learn it easier than others had, I will be using the _Palantír_ , in conjunction with my own abilities." Faykan pulled the cloth away, revealing the black orb with its silver grey clouds spiraling within. Hermione let out a small gasp of awe and Ron's eyes widened dramatically.

"This stone," Faykan explained, "allows users of strong will to look into space and time, and view locations far away. Ancient kings and rulers used it to manage the vast expanses of their territory, or spy on their enemies in times of war." Faykan paused, and looked at each of them in turn.

"Over the next few months," he said after a brief pause, "I'll take each of you one by one, and use this _Palantír_ to gaze into your minds, showing you how to built defenses from mental attacks; such as possession and legilimency. I will not try to look at your memories, or influence you to do anything you do not wish to. I ask for your trust and permission to do this, because I will not force this upon anyone who is unwilling."

His eyes stopped directly on Hermione. Harry saw her shaking slightly, but slowly nod her agreement. Everyone else followed suit as Faykan's gaze landed on them in turn.

"Very well," Faykan said as he recovered the _Palantír_. "We will begin after the Quidditch match." A clock chimed somewhere in the room, signaling that it was time for them to get to their classes. They all collected their things and hurried out the door. Harry saw Hermione cast a last look toward the table with the _Palantír_ , before she closed the door and hurried after them.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Sirius shivered in the cold wind as he stalked through the trees on the edge of the Hogwarts grounds. Crookshanks was supposed to bring him some information soon, but he had felt the dementors pass several hours ago, and he knew they were going to patrol back soon.

Looking up at the overcast sky, Sirius panted unhappily. He had no idea what time it was anymore. Some time in the early morning, if his guess was right. He was itching to try and enter the castle again, try and attack Peter and avenge James and Lily. But it was too soon, and he had no means of entering Gryffindor Tower. Hopefully his friend had would show up soon with good news.

Lightning flashed, and Sirius saw the outline of a smaller animal making its way towards his hiding place. 'Good' Sirius thought, 'Crookshanks at last.' Something was off about how his friend was acting though. The cat was weaving slowly toward him, pausing to listen as if he was worried he would be followed. During the next flash, Sirius saw that the body moving toward him wasn't the fire orange of Crookshanks… but rather it was jet black.

Eyes stared through the gloom, boring right into Sirius; bright blue eyes that shown with dazzling clarity. The same blasted fox that he had seen near Gryffindor Tower ambled up to him, seeming tiny with its fur matted against its body. The fox looked at Sirius, craning its head slightly as it entered the dry patch between the trees.

Sirius gaped at the animal, his tongue lolling out, as it slowly changed into a young boy, no older than thirteen. 'The same age as Harry,' Sirius thought as the boy shuddered at the sudden loss of his warm fur. Wrapping his arms around his body he sat against the tree, braising it between himself and the wind and rain as he studied Sirius.

"I've shown you my secret Sirius Black, now you may show me yours," he said calmly.

Sirius started to panic; this boy knew he was an animagus. Backing away slightly, he only stopped when he boy spoke again. "I'm Harry Potter's best friend Sirius; you have nothing to fear from me."

Sirius considered his options, on one hand, this boy clearly didn't fear him, and probably meant him no harm, but on the other hand, the dementors would be back soon. Casting discretion to the wind, Sirius stepped forward and changed back into his human form. "What do you want?" He said gruffly. The boy merely smiled, his calm eyes continuing to pierce right through Sirius' body.

"To inform you of Crookshanks' delay, and that he was unable to find other ways into Gryffindor Tower."

Sirius cursed, but the boy continued as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"Also, I want to inform you that Harry will be playing Quidditch tomorrow against Slytherin. He's Gryffindor's seeker, youngest one in a century at Hogwarts."

Sirius smiled at this news. He had watched some of Harry's practices and he was so proud of how well the boy could fly. But he had to focus on the matter at hand, "Why?" he asked.

"Because I believe that you are innocent, and as Harry's friend I must do everything in my power to make him happy. You being free will definitely accomplish that, after he learns who you are and what you represent to him," the boy replied with a shrug.

"But…" Sirius began before being cut off by the boy again. 'Honestly he's just like Lupin used to be,' Sirius thought fondly. "I want to help you," the raven haired youth said, "but I need to know your side of the story, Sirius. Let me help you…"

Sirius sighed, thankful that there was at least some deity out there that still cared about him by sending this boy to help him save Harry…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Five minutes into the game, Draco was soaked through his robes and felt like he was frozen to his broom. Casting a quick glance over to Harry, who was squinting around for the Snitch, Draco noticed that his friend looked no worse off then he felt. He swerved back and forth, trying to see through the dense rain and wind to see a slight glimmer of gold. The wind was howling, and it drowned out the commentary to the point where Draco couldn't tell what the score was.

Someone called for a timeout, judging by the sharp whistle from Madam Hooch. Draco landed and started to shiver violently. Flint informed him the Gryffindor was up by fifty points, and that Draco needed to get the Snitch as fast as possible. Peering across the pitch, Draco could see Faykan and Hermione trying to help Harry, who was shivering as badly as Draco. Faykan passed by him on his way back to the stands at the end of the timeout, and Draco felt the silent, wandless warming charm immediately, and smiled.

Full of fresh determination, Draco urged his broom through the turbulent air, staring in every direction for the Snitch, avoiding a Bludger, and skimming over Harry. Draco turned, looked at Harry for a second, and then saw it; the glint of the Snitch. He sped after it and heard the Gryffindor captain yell at Harry, warning him of Draco's movement.

Draco urged his broom faster, if he could just get to the Snitch first… but then something very odd happened. Harry, who was neck and neck with Draco now, widened his eyes in horror. An eerie silence had fallen across the stadium. The wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. It was as though someone had turned off the sound, as though Draco had gone suddenly deaf.

Then a horrible wave of cold swept over him, and he became aware of many things gliding over the field below the speeding seekers.

At least a hundred dementors, their hidden faces pointing up at the two seekers, were standing beneath them. Draco screamed, and dived forward, feeling something slam into his fist as he stared, wide eyed, as Harry slumped over and fell off his broom, into the mass of black cloaked dementors.

Then two booming voices, both sounding great and terrible at once sounded together.

" _Aresto Momentum!_ " sounded the first while the other cried, " _Expecto Patronum!_ "

Draco's eyes snapped downward. Harry's fall had slowed considerably, and a large silver bird had erupted from the stands, soaring upward and barreling into the nearest dementor, scratching it with talons and beak. Draco spun around to get a good look at it; it was a giant eagle. The dementors were fleeing from the great bird of prey as it dove and slashed at each in turn, driving them away from Harry.

Something fluttered in Draco's hand, distracting him, and he looked to find the Snitch clutched in his fist…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Madam Pomfrey had thrown out the Gryffindor Quidditch team from visiting Harry after ten minutes, but Hermione, Ron and Faykan remained, moving closer to Harry when she turned on them. She sighed and closed the door to her office to block out their conversation.

Harry groaned, Slytherin had won the match by only around fifty points, but a defeat was still a defeat. As if reading his thoughts Ron spoke up, "Draco tried to get them to have a rematch, but he said Flint wouldn't hear of it. He threatened to kick Draco off the team if he didn't accept the win."

"Dumbledore was really angry," Hermione said in a quaking voice. "I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wand and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Faykan was there too, and whirled his wand at the dementors at the same moment. He conjured a silver eagle to attack them. They left the stadium right away... Dumbledore was furious they'd come onto the grounds. We heard him…"

"Then he magicked you onto a stretcher," said Ron, "and walked up to school with you floating on it. Everyone thought you were…"

His voice faded, but Harry hardly noticed. He was thinking about what the dementors had done to him... about the screaming voice. He looked up and saw his three friends watching him anxiously.

"Did someone get my Nimbus?" he asked after a moment.

All three of them looked quickly at each other.

"Err…" Ron stammered.

"What?" said Harry, looking from face to face.

"Well... when you fell off, it got blown away," said Hermione hesitantly.

"And?" Harry persisted, feeling a slight fear well up inside him.

"And it hit… it hit… oh, Harry… it hit the Whomping Willow." Hermione admitted.

Harry's insides lurched. The Whomping Willow was a very violent tree that stood alone in the middle of the grounds.

"And?" he said, dreading the answer.

"Well, you know the Whomping Willow," said Faykan. "It doesn't like being hit."

"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around," said Hermione in a very small voice.

Slowly, she reached down for a bag at her feet, turned it upside down, and tipped a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig onto the bed, the only remains of Harry's faithful, finally beaten broomstick.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione headed to the Room of Requirement early Sunday morning, hoping to get some early reading before the scheduled training session with Faykan. He had postponed the Occlumency lessons until Harry was out of the Hospital Wing, stating that it was easier to start teaching them the basics together, but Hermione could tell that he was too worried about Harry to teach them anything new.

As she approached the room, Hermione noticed that the door was already in place on the wall, meaning that someone was already inside. Pushing the door open slowly, Hermione could see he room was cast in shadows, the only light coming from the lounge area off to the side.

Edging into the room, Hermione could see the silhouette of Faykan, his back to Hermione. She could hear him muttering to himself, but the voice was clearly not his, deep and resonant, _"I_ _amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, han mathon ne chae, a han noston ned 'wilith_. _"_

Hermione, now intently curious, moved to stand right beside Faykan, who didn't even notice her presence. He was gazing deeply into the _Palantír_ , one hand hovering over the stone.

Glancing down at the stone, Hermione's eyes widened when she saw Harry's face surrounded by the swirling grey mists.

"So... much pain…" Faykan murmured, and Hermione saw tears running down his face. She realized that this was one of the few times she had ever seen the boy openly crying. Gathering her courage, she placed a hand on Faykan's shoulder to return him to reality.

The hand over the _Palantír_ withdrew as she made contact, and slowly Faykan tore his eyes away from Harry's face, turning to look at Hermione.

"We all have our secrets," he said slowly, while he placed his opposite hand on Hermione's. "I trust you'll keep mine out of respect for my privacy…"

"You really care about him… don't you…?" Hermione breathed. She had never considered that Faykan dwelt on Harry's wellbeing to the point of obsession.

He smiled slightly, "More than anyone could possibly imagine…"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

It was a relief to return to the noise and bustle of the main school on Monday, where Harry was forced to think about other things, even if he had to endure Theodore Nott's taunting.

Nott was almost beside himself with glee at Gryffindor's defeat. He had finally taken off his bandages, and celebrated having the full use of both arms again by doing spirited imitations of Harry falling off his broom. The frustrating Slytherin spent much of their next Potions class doing dementor imitations across the dungeon, until Faykan sent a stinging hex across the room at him, under the tables. Snape had given him a detention, and also docked twenty five points from Gryffindor.

"If Snape's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I'm skiving off," said Ron as they headed toward Lupin's classroom after lunch. "Check who's in there, Hermione."

Snape had been their substitute during their last class, which had disgruntled all of the students because of the ridicules amount of homework he had assigned.

Hermione peered around the classroom door. "It's okay!" she said happily.

Professor Lupin was back at work. It certainly looked as though he had been ill. His old robes were hanging more loosely on him and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes; nevertheless, he smiled at the class as they took their seats, and they burst at once into an explosion of complaints about Snape's behavior while Lupin had been ill.

"It's not fair, he was only filling in, why should he give us homework?"

"We don't know anything about werewolves. Two rolls of parchment!"

"Did you tell Professor Snape we haven't covered them yet?" Lupin asked, frowning slightly.

The babble broke out again.

"Yes, but he said we were really behind, he wouldn't listen…"

"…two rolls of parchment!"

Professor Lupin smiled at the look of indignation on every face. "Don't worry. I'll speak to Professor Snape. You don't have to do the essay." He said.

"Oh no," said Hermione, looking very disappointed. "I've already finished it!"

They had a very enjoyable lesson. Professor Lupin had brought along a glass box containing a hinkypunk, a little one legged creature who looked as though he were made of wisps of smoke, rather frail and harmless looking.

"Lures travelers into bogs," said Professor Lupin as they took notes.

"You notice the lantern dangling from his hand? Hops ahead, people follow the light, then…"

The hinkypunk made a horrible squelching noise against the glass. When the bell rang, everyone gathered up their things and headed for the door, Harry among them, but…

"Wait a moment, Harry," Lupin called. "I'd like a word."

 _I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, han mathon ne chae, a han noston ned 'wilith : The world is changed; I can feel it in the water, I can feel it in the earth, I can smell it in the air_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You have Been Warned!**

 _Not too much in the way of changing here, thankfully I felt it wasn't needed, as there would have been little time to do it between final papers and packing, and cleaning, and flying home and so forth. Still, a small addition in the Dumbledore section, and some touchup in the dialogue throughout the chapter. Rowling had a serious liking for lines of dialogue where you had to infer who was speaking. bad form I say now... bad form indeed. ~F_


	34. Y3-C8: Hogsmeade Revelations

_Pardon for the late posting, there have been many a cutback in productivity with the summer vacation. much needful sleep was had! Nevertheless, here is the next chapter, and I will strive to be more prepared ahead of time for the next one. please enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Eight**

 **Hogsmeade Revelations**

Two weeks before the end of term, the sky opened up its floodgates and let loose a downfall of dazzling white, leaving the muddy grounds covered in glittering frost in the morning.

Inside the castle, the Christmas spirit was taking over; holiday cheer heavy in the air. Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, had already decorated his classroom with shimmering lights that upon investigation turned out to be real, fluttering fairies. The students were all happily discussing their plans for the holidays. Draco had come and given both Harry and Faykan their formal invitations to the Malfoy Yule Tide celebration.

Harry wasn't completely happy with the idea. He liked Draco a lot, but he didn't know what to expect from the other boy's parents. The only times he had met Lucius Malfoy were in Diagon Alley last year and in Professor McGonagall's office, and neither had left him completely impressed with the man. He supposed there was no backing out of it since he and Faykan had already agreed to go earlier, so he would just have to watch his back. Faykan had agreed with him on that idea.

To everyone's delight except Harry's, there was to be another Hogsmeade trip on the very last weekend of the term.

"We can do all our Christmas shopping there!" said Hermione. "Mum and Dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!"

Resigned to the fact that he would be one of the only two third years staying behind again, Harry had preemptively borrowed a copy of ' _Which Broomstick'_ from Oliver Wood, and decided to spend the day reading up on the different makes. He had been lucky that Faykan had allowed him to ride his custom broom during team practices, but Harry felt that he definitely needed a new broom of his own.

On the Saturday morning of the Hogsmeade trip, Harry bid goodbye to Ron and Hermione, who were wrapped in cloaks and scarves, then turned up the marble staircase with Faykan the fox, and headed back toward Gryffindor Tower. Snow had started to fall outside the windows, and the castle was very still and quiet.

"Psst… Harry!" someone whispered.

He turned, halfway along the third-floor corridor, to see Fred and George peering out at him from behind a statue of a humpbacked, one eyed witch.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked curiously. "How come you're not going to Hogsmeade?"

"We've come to give you a bit of festive cheer before we go," said Fred, with a mysterious wink. "Come in here..."

He nodded toward an empty classroom to the left of the one eyed statue. Harry followed Fred and George inside. George closed the door quietly after Faykan had slipped in and then turned, beaming, to look at Harry.

"Early Christmas present for you, Harry," George said.

Fred pulled something from inside his cloak with a flourish and laid it on one of the desks. It was a large, square, and much worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it. Harry, suspecting one of Fred and George's jokes, stared at it. Faykan jumped onto the table and sniffed it lightly.

"What's that supposed to be?" Harry asked, somewhat suspicious of the blank parchment.

"This, Harry, is the secret of our success," said George, idly stroking Faykan's fur softly.

"It's a wrench, giving it to you," said Fred, "but we decided last night, your needs are greater than ours."

"Anyway, we know it by heart," said George. "We bequeath it to you. We don't really need it anymore."

"And what do I need with a bit of old parchment?" said Harry.

"A bit of old parchment!" said Fred, closing his eyes with a grimace as though Harry had mortally offended him. "Explain, George."

George explain how they had stolen the parchment out of Filch's office their first year at Hogwarts.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know," said George. "We don't reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected what it was, though, or he wouldn't have confiscated it."

"And you know how to work it?" Harry supplied.

"Oh yes," said Fred, smirking. "This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school."

"You're winding me up," said Harry, still looking at the ragged old bit of parchment.

"Oh, are we?" said George.

He took out his wand, touched the parchment lightly, and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed:

 _Messrs._ _Moony_ _,_ _Wormtail_ _,_ _Padfoot_ _, and Prongs_

 _Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present_

 _THE MARAUDER'S MAP_

They all watched as lines formed on the parchment, mapping out a perfect replica of Hogwarts, and four dots in the classroom they were in; Harry Potter, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and… Faykan Undol, but for some reason Faykan's name kept shifting, as though trying to change to something else, then abruptly returning to normal.

"That's odd." said Fred

"The map has never done that before." George added.

"Hey… wait a minute; Fay's not here… unless!" Fred said, looking from Faykan the fox to the dot on the map.

"But that means…" George tailed off as they looked at Faykan in amazement.

"You're an Animagus!" they both cried together.

Faykan jumped off the table and changed back, to the cheers from both twins. "That is so cool Fay!" Fred said.

"Why didn't you tell us?" said George, slapping Faykan on the back good-naturedly.

"Anyway," Fred said, returning to the map and tracing one of the passages, "This one will lead you right into Hogsmeade, right into the cellar of Honeydukes. We've used it loads of times. And as you might've noticed, the entrance is right outside this room, through that one-eyed old crone's hump."

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," sighed George, patting the heading of the map. "We owe them so much."

"Noble men, working tirelessly to help a new generation of lawbreakers," said Fred solemnly.

"Right," said George briskly. "Don't forget to wipe it after you've used it or anyone can read it," Fred said warningly.

"Just tap it again and say, 'Mischief managed!' And it'll go blank." They said in unison.

"So, young Harry," said Fred, in an uncanny impersonation of Percy, "mind you behave yourself."

"See you in Honeydukes," said George, winking.

"And you young Faykie," Fred added with a cheeky grin, "Keep up with the surprises."

"We look forward to your future with great interest," said George with a mischievous smile.

They left the room, both smirking in a satisfied sort of way.

"Well," said Faykan, "That was unexpected…"

Harry just stood there however, gazing at the miraculous map. He watched the tiny ink Mrs. Norris turn left and pause to sniff at something on the floor. If Filch really didn't know... he wouldn't have to pass the dementors at all...

"Odd, isn't it, how my name is all fuzzy on the map though," Faykan commented, and Harry just nodded absently. He traced the secret passage to Honeydukes with his finger.

Then, quite suddenly, as though following orders, he rolled up the map, stuffed it inside his robes, and hurried to the door of the classroom. Faykan caught him by the arm. But even as Harry turned to protest, he felt Faykan press his invisibility cloak into his other hand, "Thought it would come in handy to keep this around…" Faykan said, waggling his eyebrows knowingly.

Harry opened the door it a couple of inches. There was no one outside. Very carefully, he edged out of the room and behind the statue of the one eyed witch.

"What do we do?" Faykan asked as they approached the statue. Harry pulled out the map again and saw to his astonishment, that the two ink figures of Harry Potter and Faykan Undol were right standing where they were in reality.

Harry watched carefully. His little Ink self appeared to be tapping the witch with his minute wand. Harry quickly took out his real wand and tapped the statue. Nothing happened. He looked back at the map. The tiniest speech bubble had appeared next to his figure. The word inside said, ' _Dissendium_.'

" _Dissendium_ _!_ " Harry whispered, tapping the stone witch again. At once, the statue's hump opened wide enough to admit a fairly thin person. Harry glanced quickly up and down the corridor, then tucked the map away again, hoisted himself into the hole headfirst, and pushed himself forward.

He slid a considerable way down what felt like a stone slide with Faykan right behind him, then landed on cold, damp earth. They stood up, looking around. It was pitch dark. Harry held up his wand, muttered, " _Lumos_!" and saw that he was in a very narrow, low, earthy passageway. He raised the map, tapped it with the tip of his wand, and muttered, "Mischief managed!" The map went blank at once. He folded it carefully, tucked it inside his robes, tossed on the Invisibility cloak over him and Faykan, then, hearts beating fast, both excited and apprehensive, they set off.

The passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant rabbit than anything else. Harry hurried along it, stumbling now and then on the uneven floor, holding his wand out in front of him.

It took ages, but Harry had the thought of Honeydukes to sustain him. After what felt like an hour, the passage began to rise. Panting, Harry sped up, his face hot, his feet very cold.

Ten minutes later, he came to the foot of some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight above him. Careful not to make any noise, Harry began to climb, Faykan right behind him. A hundred steps, two hundred steps, he lost count as he climbed, watching his feet... Then, without warning, his head hit something hard.

"Harry what was that?" Faykan whispered.

Harry felt around above him. It seemed to be a trapdoor. Harry stood there, massaging the top of his head, listening. He couldn't hear any sounds above him. Very slowly, he pushed the trapdoor open and peered over the edge.

They were in a cellar, full of wooden crates and boxes. Harry and Faykan climbed out of the trapdoor, replaced it, and wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around them tighter. Creeping toward the wooden staircase that led upstairs, Harry could definitely hear voices, as well as the tinkling of a bell and the sound of a door opening and closing.

Someone came down to collect something or other, but Harry and Faykan swept past him and up the stairs and found themselves behind the counter of Honeydukes. Honeydukes was so crowded with Hogwarts students that it was slightly difficult to maneuver two people through them, but Faykan and Harry managed. They edged among them, looking around, and suppressed a laugh as he imagined the look that would spread over Dudley's piggy face if he could see where Harry was now.

Harry and Faykan squeezed themselves through a crowd of sixth years and saw a sign hanging in the farthest corner of the shop, reading ' _UNUSUAL TASTES_ '. Ron and Hermione were standing underneath it, examining a tray of blood-flavored lollipops. Harry sneaked up behind them.

"Ugh, no, Harry won't want one of those, they're for vampires, I expect," Hermione was saying.

"How about these?" asked Ron, shoving a jar of Cockroach Clusters under Hermione's nose.

"Definitely not," said Harry stepping out of the Invisibility cloak.

Ron nearly dropped the jar.

"Harry!" squealed Hermione, looking around. "What are you doing here? How did you…?"

"Wow!" said Ron, looking very impressed, "you've learned to Apparate!"

"Course he hasn't," said Faykan as he pulled the cloak off himself, causing both Ron and Hermione to jump again. Harry dropped his voice to that the nearby sixth years couldn't hear them and explained all about the Marauder's Map.

"How come Fred and George never gave it to me!" said Ron, outraged. "I'm their brother!"

"But Harry isn't going to keep it!" said Hermione, as though the idea were ludicrous. "He's going to hand it in to Professor McGonagall, aren't you, Harry?"

"No, I'm not!" said Harry.

"Are you mad?" said Ron, goggling at Hermione. "Hand in something that good?"

"If I hand it in, I'll have to say where I got it! Filch would know Fred and George had nicked it!"

"But what about Sirius Black?" Hermione hissed. "He could be using one of the passages on that map to get into the castle! The teachers have got to know!"

"I highly doubt Sirius Black is going to come across this map if Harry keeps it… Honestly, you'd think Black could walk around invisible and snatch it from us unawares or something, give us a break Hermione. We're not that dense." Faykan said rather hotly.

"Yes, but… but…" Hermione seemed to be struggling to find another problem. "Look, Harry and Faykan still shouldn't be coming into Hogsmeade. Professor McGonagall forbade both of them despite having their forms! If anyone finds out, they'll be in so much trouble!"

"Are you going to report us?" Harry asked her, grinning.

Hermione stiffened, "Oh... of course not, but honestly, Harry…"

But Ron had led Harry and Faykan away by the arm to show them the different sweets by that point, so Hermione just fumed silently and followed them around the store. When Ron and Hermione had paid for all their sweets, the three of them left Honeydukes for the blizzard outside.

Hogsmeade looked like a Christmas card; the little thatched cottages and shops were all covered in a layer of crisp snow; there were holly wreaths on the doors and strings of enchanted candles hanging in the trees.

Harry shivered; unlike the other two, he and Faykan didn't have cloaks. They headed up the street, heads bowed against the wind, Ron and Hermione shouting through their scarves.

"That's the post office…" one would say.

"Zonko's is up there…" the other countered.

"We could go up to the Shrieking Shack…" Faykan suggested.

"Tell you what," said Ron, his teeth chattering, "shall we go for a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?"

Harry was more than willing; the wind was fierce and his hands were freezing, so they crossed the road, and in a few minutes were entering the tiny inn.

It was extremely crowded, noisy, warm, and smoky. A curvy sort of woman with a pretty face was serving a bunch of rowdy warlock' up at the bar.

"That's Madam Rosmerta," said Ron. "I'll get the drinks, shall I?" he added, going slightly red.

Harry, Faykan, and Hermione made their way to the back of the room where a small, vacant table sat between the window and a handsome Christmas tree next to the fireplace. Ron came back five minutes later, carrying four foaming tankards of hot butterbeer.

"Merry Christmas!" he said happily, raising his tankard.

Harry drank deeply. It was the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted and seemed to heat every bit of him from the inside.

A sudden breeze ruffled his hair. The door of the Three Broomsticks had opened again. Harry looked over the rim of his tankard and choked.

Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had just entered the pub with a flurry of snowflakes, shortly followed by Hagrid, who was deep in conversation with a portly man in a lime green bowler hat and a pinstriped cloak, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic.

In an instant, Ron and Hermione had both placed hands on the top of Harry's head and forced him off his stool and under the table, while Faykan ducked under from the other side of the table. Dripping with butterbeer and crouching out of sight, Harry threw the Invisibility cloak around himself while Faykan shifted into the large black fox, and they watched the teachers' and Fudge's feet move toward the bar, pause, then turn and walk right toward him.

Somewhere above him, Hermione whispered, " _Mobiliarbus_ _!_ "

The Christmas tree beside their table rose a few inches off the ground, drifted sideways, and landed with a soft thump right in front of their table, hiding them from view. Staring through the dense lower branches, Harry saw four sets of chair legs move back from the table right beside theirs, then heard the grunts and sighs If the teachers and minister as they sat down.

Next he saw another pair of feet, wearing sparkly turquoise high heels, and heard a woman's voice. "A small gillywater…"

"Mine," said Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Four pints of mulled mead…"

"Ta, Rosmerta," said Hagrid.

"A cherry syrup and soda with ice and umbrella…"

"Mmm!" said Professor Flitwick, smacking his lips.

"So you'll be the red currant rum, Minister."

"Thank you, Rosmerta, m'dear," said Fudge's voice. "Lovely to see you again, I must say. Have one yourself, won't you? Come and join us..."

"Well, thank you very much, Minister."

Harry watched the glittering heels march away and back again. His heart was pounding uncomfortably in his throat. Why hadn't it occurred to him that this was the last weekend of term for the teachers too? And how long were they going to sit there? He needed time to sneak back into Honeydukes if he wanted to return to school tonight... Hermione's leg gave a nervous twitch next to him.

"So, what brings you to this neck of the woods, Minister?" came Madam Rosmerta's voice.

Harry saw the lower part of Fudge's thick body twist in his chair as though he were checking for eavesdroppers. Then he said in a quiet voice, "What else, m'dear, but Sirius Black? I daresay you heard what happened up at the school at Halloween?"

I did hear a rumor," admitted Madam Rosmerta.

"Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid?" said Professor McGonagall exasperatedly.

"Do you think Blacks still in the area, Minister?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"I'm sure of it," said Fudge shortly.

"You know that the dementors have searched the whole village twice?" said Madam Rosmerta, a slight edge to her voice. "Scared all my customers away... It's very bad for business, Minister."

"Rosmerta, dear, I don't like them any more than you do," said Fudge uncomfortably. "Necessary precaution... unfortunate, but there you are... I've just met some of them. They're in a fury against Dumbledore; he won't let them inside the castle grounds."

"I should think not," said Professor McGonagall sharply. "How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around?"

"Hear, hear!" squeaked tiny Professor Flitwick, whose feet were dangling a foot from the ground.

"All the same," demurred Fudge, "they are here to protect you all from something much worse... We all know what Black's capable of..."

"Do you know, I still have trouble believing it," said Madam Rosmerta thoughtfully. "Of all the people to go over to the Dark Side, Sirius Black was the last I'd have thought... I mean, I remember him when he was a boy at Hogwarts. If you'd told me then what he was going to become, I'd have said you'd had too much mead."

"You don't know the half of it, Rosmerta," said Fudge gruffly. "The worst he did isn't widely known."

"The worst?" said Madam Rosmerta, her voice alive with curiosity, "Worse than murdering all those poor people, you mean?"

"I certainly do," said Fudge.

"I can't believe that. What could possibly be worse?" "You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta," murmured Professor McGonagall.

"Do you remember who his best friend was?"

"Naturally," said Madam Rosmerta, with a small laugh. "Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here… ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!"

Harry dropped his tankard with a loud clunk. Ron kicked him, missing and hitting Faykan the fox in the side, who yelped loudly.

"Precisely," said Professor McGonagall. "Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. Both very bright, of course… exceptionally bright, in fact… but I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers…"

"I dunno," chuckled Hagrid. "Fred and George Weasley could give 'em a run fer their money."

"You'd have thought Black and Potter were brothers!" chimed in Professor Flitwick. "Inseparable!"

"Of course they were," said Fudge. "Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was best man when James married Lily. Then they named him godfather to Harry. Harry has no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment him."

"Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"Worse even than that, m'dear..." Fudge dropped his voice and proceeded in a sort of low rumble. "Not many people are aware that the Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding. Well, of course, You-Know-Who wasn't an easy person to hide from. Dumbledore told them that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm."

"So Black was the Potters' Secret-Keeper?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"Naturally," said Professor McGonagall. "James Potter told Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell where they were, that Black was planning to go into hiding himself... and yet, Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the Potters' Secret-Keeper himself."

"He suspected Black?" gasped Madam Rosmerta.

"He was sure that somebody close to the Potters had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements," said Professor McGonagall darkly. "Indeed, he had suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who."

"But James Potter insisted on using Black?"

"He did," said Fudge heavily. "And then, barely a week after the Fidelius Charm had been performed…"

"Black betrayed them?" breathed Madam Rosmerta.

"He did indeed. Black was tired of his double-agent role, he was ready to declare his support openly for You-Know-Who, and he seems to have planned this for the moment of the Potters' death. But, as we all know, You-Know-Who met his downfall in little Harry Potter. Powers gone, horribly weakened, he fled. And this left Black in a very nasty position indeed. His master had fallen at the very moment when he, Black, had shown his true colors as a traitor. He had no choice but to run for it…"

"Hagrid, please!" said Professor McGonagall. "Keep your voice down!"

"How was I ter know he wasn' upset abou' Lily an' James? It was You-Know-Who he cared abou'! An' then he says, 'Give Harry ter me, Hagrid, I'm his godfather, I'll look after him…' Ha! But I'd had me orders from Dumbledore, an' I told Black no, Dumbledore said Harry was ter go ter his aunt an' uncle's. Black argued, but in the end he gave in. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get Harry there. 'I won't need it anymore,' he says.

"I shoulda known there was somethin' fishy goin' on then. He loved that motorbike, what was he givin' it ter me for? Why wouldn' he need it anymore? Fact was, it was too easy ter trace. Dumbledore knew he'd bin the Potters' Secret-Keeper. Black knew he was goin' ter have ter run fer it that night, knew it was a matter o' hours before the Ministry was after him.

"But what if I'd given Harry to him, eh? I bet he'd 've pitched him off the bike halfway out ter sea. His bes' friends' son! But when a wizard goes over ter the Dark Side, there's nothin' and no one that matters to em anymore..."

A long silence followed Hagrid's story. Then Madam Rosmerta said with some satisfaction, "But he didn't manage to disappear, did he? The Ministry of Magic caught up with him next day!"

"Alas, if only we had," said Fudge bitterly. "It was not we who found him. It was little Peter Pettigrew, another of the Potters' friends. Maddened by grief, no doubt, and knowing that Black had been the Potters' Secret-Keeper, he went after Black himself."

"Pettigrew... that fat little boy who was always tagging around after them at Hogwarts?" said Madam Rosmerta.

"Hero worshipped Black and Potter," said Professor McGonagall. "Never quite in their league, talent wise. I was often rather, hard with him. You can imagine how I regret that now..." She sounded as though she had a sudden head cold.

"There, now, Minerva," said Fudge kindly, "Pettigrew died a hero's death. Eyewitnesses… Muggles, of course, we wiped their, memories later, told us how Pettigrew cornered Black. They say he was sobbing, 'Lily and James, Sirius! How could you?' And then he went for his wand. Well, of course, Black was quicker. Blew Pettigrew to smithereens..."

Professor McGonagall blew her nose and said thickly, "Stupid boy... foolish boy... he was always hopeless at dueling... should have left it to the Ministry..."

"Well, there you have it, Rosmerta," said Fudge thickly. "Black was taken away by twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement 'Squad and Pettigrew received the Order of Merlin, First Class, which I think was some comfort to his poor mother. Blades been in Azkaban ever since."

Madam Rosmerta let out a long sigh.

"But what do you think he's broken out to do?" said Madam Rosmerta. "Good gracious, Minister, he isn't trying to rejoin You-Know-Who, is he?"

I daresay that is his… err, eventual plan," said Fudge evasively. "But we hope to catch Black long before that. I must say, You-Know-Who alone and friendless is one thing... but give him back his most devoted servant, and I shudder to think how quickly he'll rise again..."

There was a small chink of glass on wood. Someone had set down their glass.

"You know, Cornelius, if you're dining with the Headmaster, you'd better head back up to the castle," said Professor McGonagall.

One by one, the pairs of feet in front of Harry took the weight of their owners once more; hems of cloaks swung into sight, and Madam Rosemerta's glittering heels disappeared behind the bar. The door of the Three Broomsticks opened again, there was another flurry of snow, and the teachers had disappeared.

"Harry?"

Ron's and Hermione's faces appeared under the table. They were both staring in his general direction, lost for words. Faykan had his front paws resting on Harry through the Cloak, preventing him from leaving.

A moment later, Faykan changed and was holding Harry by the shoulders, as Ron and Hermione peeled the cloak off him. "Harry…" Faykan said, but Harry didn't hear him. Why had nobody ever told him? Dumbledore, Hagrid, Mr. Weasley, Cornelius Fudge... why hadn't anyone ever mentioned the fact that Harry's parents had died because their best friend had betrayed them?

"Look at me Harry…" Faykan said, shacking Harry slightly to pull him out of his stupor, "We need to get back to the castle. I know you must be in shock about this, but I need you to focus for the time being…"

Together they pulled the Invisibility cloak back over them, bade goodbye to Ron and Hermione, and slipped back through Honeydukes, down the secret passage, and back into Hogwarts…

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned**

 _So, much dialogue in this chapter, hence the low word count, and therefore little in the realm of changes. This is also one of the strange, and rare, chapters that are all one perspective. I was making a clear effort to work towards an entire chapter for a perspective in preparation for a publishable novel, where character perspectives would be one per chapter, instead of 3-5 per chapter. and yes, said novel is something I am still working toward, possibly as soon as other fanfiction is completed. Still, minor alterations to make sure speakers are clear, and some small dialogue changes to point out small things. otherwise, holding very true to the original. I'm getting the feeling that many of the chapters will be very similar until later in this book and into the 4th or even 5th book, where things with LotR start to become even more heavily involved._


	35. Y3-C9: Malfoy Manor

_Yay, I finished one on time this time! Thanks to those who review, the encouragement to continue is most helpful! please enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Nine**

 **Malfoy Manor**

Harry had the worst time trying to sleep that night. He lay on his four-poster and stared up at the canopy ceiling for what felt like hours as hatred such as Harry had never known before boiled through him like poison.

He could see in his mind Black laughing at him through the darkness, as though somebody had pasted the man's picture over his eyes. He watched, as though somebody was playing him a piece of film, Sirius Black blasting Peter Pettigrew - who resembled Neville Longbottom - into a thousand pieces. He could hear what he thought the man's voice might sound like in a low, excited mutter. "It has happened, My Lord... the Potters have made me their Secret-Keeper," and then came another voice, laughing shrilly, the same laugh that Harry heard inside his head whenever the dementors drew near.

From the bed to his left, Harry heard the sound of rustling bed sheets and parting curtains. A few seconds later, Faykan poked his head through Harry's curtains, "Harry," he whispered, "you awake?" how his best friend knew this, Harry had no idea.

But at the same time, Harry didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment. Unfortunately, even as he rolled away to turn his back on Faykan, the other boy refused to take the hint and slid onto the bed along side Harry. Faykan cast a silencing spell around the bed, and after a few moments, finally spoke, "I have an idea what you must be thinking Harry, but you shouldn't trust what Cornelius Fudge believes is the truth. The Ministry only believes what it wants to believe, and the Professors don't know what happened that night. Not even Dumbledore knows exactly what took place."

Harry turned slowly to look at Faykan, who was sitting with his back against the headboard, staring down into his lap. "I believe," Faykan said, "that they all have made mistakes before, and that they will make them in the future. I also believe, Harry, that they are completely and utterly wrong about Sirius Black… I cannot prove it, I cannot explain it; I just know that they are wrong about him."

Faykan finally looked at Harry, and Harry saw the deep sadness that permeated from his crystal blue eyes. Sitting up, Harry eased back against his headboard, and rested his head on Faykan's shoulder, while his friend ran a hand through Harry's hair comfortingly. "I only want you to think for yourself about this Harry, don't merely rely on what others think or believe, not even me. Trust yourself above all others."

Faykan finally turned and kissed the crown of Harry's head in a show of affection, then made to slip off the bed and back to his own, but Harry stopped him, not wanting to lose the comfort that Faykan's presence represented. Faykan just nodded and allowed Harry to pull him back onto the bed. He settled down under the covers next to Harry, and Harry felt one arm snake around his waist as Faykan maneuvered into a comfortable position. Harry fell asleep listening to the rhythmic breathing and heartbeat of his best friend, relishing the odd peace that the closeness brought to him. He wasn't sure why, but at time like this it seemed that Faykan voluntarily transformed into something like an older brother for him, and it was simultaneously an odd thing as well as a needed comfort.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was up bright and early the first day of the winter holidays. She had a lot of homework to accomplish for her many classes, and she was only to use her Time-Turner for attending classes. So she had taken to waking up extra early during weekends to study and get her work finished.

She had just set out all her books, parchment, and quills when Ron came tiptoeing down the boy's staircase and motioned her to come over to him. "You have to see this," he whispered when she came over. Ron led her back up to the third year boy's dormitory, and pushed open the door slowly, he pointed over toward Harry's bed, where the curtains were drawn closed around it, unlike any of the other beds. Hermione crept over to the bed, confused and curious as to why Ron was so intent on her seeing whatever was in Harry's bed.

'This better not be a prank,' she thought as she pulled back the curtains. What she saw almost made her laugh out loud, but she managed to restrain herself.

Both Harry and Faykan were asleep in Harry's bed, Harry curled up against Faykan, who had his arms wrapped tightly around his best friend. Hermione wished she had a camera or Colin Creevey around for this moment, it was so adorable.

It was pretty obvious that Harry had been having a hard time coping with the news that he had overheard at Hogsmeade. Both Hermione and Ron had watched him the rest of that day, but his mood hadn't seemed to improve during dinner, and he went straight to bed afterward without talking to anyone. Clearly Faykan had moved to comfort his friend in the middle of the night, and by the relaxed way that Harry was sleeping, it had definitely helped.

Quietly, Hermione reclosed the curtains and rejoined Ron in the common room. He was pulling out a box of sweets that Fred and George had left for him, but looked up when Hermione sat down in front of her homework. "So, imagine my surprise when I go to wake up my best mates and find them in bed together…" he said, suppressing a small laugh.

"I think it was a very nice thing for Faykan to do, consoling Harry like that in the middle of the night." Hermione said, mentally scolding Ron for his ignorance of the kind of pain Harry must have been going through.

"Well, maybe," Ron said, returning to his Peppermint Toads, "but I can certainly say it was quite a shock at first; not something that I would have expected to find."

They talked together for a few more hours, and finally went to breakfast without the two sleeping boys. They returned to the common room and Ron pulled out his homework, while Hermione started to study her Ancient Runes book. Finally before lunch, Harry and Faykan came downstairs, still in their pajamas and rubbing sleep from their eyes. "Morning…" Hermione said to them without looking up. She had made Ron promise to not mention that they had both seen them sleeping together during breakfast, as he was inclined to tease them about it for the rest of their natural lives.

"Harry, you look better." Ron said, and it was true. Harry was a lot calmer and much less withdrawn. Harry grumbled something unintelligible and sank onto one of the couches near the fire. Faykan stretched and pulled an armchair next to Hermione so he could look at all the work she had completed.

"Where is everyone?" said Harry.

"Gone! It's the first day of the holidays, remember?" said Ron, still watching Harry closely. "It's nearly lunchtime; I was going to come and wake you up in a minute." He threw a grin at Hermione, who scowled at him for his lack of tact. Both Harry and Faykan had flushed slightly, and for a moment Hermione had wondered what had transpired when they awoke, but she quickly cast the thought aside and focused on her book.

"Harry, listen," said Ron, exchanging a look with Hermione, "you must be really upset about what we heard yesterday. But the thing is, you mustn't go doing anything stupid."

"Like what?" said Harry. From his tone Hermione guessed that he and Faykan had already discussed something similar to this the previous night, and again she found herself grateful that the boy cared so deeply for Harry.

"Like trying to go after Black." said Ron sharply. Harry exchanged a look with Faykan, who merely shrugged and returned his attention to the pile of work Hermione had completed. After a few moments of tense silence, Harry answered, "No, I won't go looking for Black. But if he does find me, I want to find out the truth."

"The truth?" Ron said, confused. "You know the truth Harry, Black betrayed your parents to You-know-who. He practically killed them himself. Then he went to Azkaban after blowing up Pettigrew, finally escaping to come after you!"

"Perhaps," Harry responded, looking at Faykan thoughtfully, "but perhaps the truth is not what the Ministry believes." There was a silence in which Crookshanks stretched luxuriously flexing his claws. Ron's pocket quivered.

Ron looked like he was readying himself to push the argument, but Faykan interrupted, "Ron, drop it, it's nearly Christmas. Let's go visit Hagrid or something…"

"Yes, let's visit Hagrid." Harry said, sitting up.

"No!" Hermione interrupted. Why were boys so intent on doing the most dangerous things they could possibly do? "Harry, you're not supposed to leave the castle, remember?"

But none of the boys were listening to her, and sighing in resignation; Hermione went to collect her cloak and followed them out of the common room.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus frowned for what felt like the hundredth time in less than twenty four hours. He had been spending almost all of his free time over this holiday break pouring over many different notes and memories about Faykan Undol, struggling to find something, anything that would hint as to who he was, and much more importantly, why he was so insufferably intertwined with Harry Potter.

From what he had found thus far, it was clear to Albus; the boy was definitely a threat to his plans for Harry. Faykan contained powers that many grown wizards didn't, and he was merely a child, possibly. An animagus by age eleven if not sooner, the incident with the troll on Halloween, being a trained Occlumens, the Patronus he conjured just before the holidays started.

Faykan's power might even contend Albus' own, let alone the potential for the boy to grow more powerful. To say that Albus was worried was a major understatement. If he lost Harry from the path he had prepared for him, the entire wizarding world could crumble to dust around him. Harry was the key to defeating Voldemort; the prophecy clearly defined that, and Faykan, this boy who was closer to Harry than any other living person, could so easily upset the careful balance that Albus had placed to guide Harry to his destiny.

Turning from his long list of Faykan's abilities, Albus regarded the pensieve that contained his and many of the other teacher's memories about Mr. Undol. He bent forward, intent on examining the first time he had seen this boy, the sorting ceremony two years previous.

Albus sank into the depths of the memory, landing in the Great Hall next to his two-year-younger self, seated in the high back chair of the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Albus watched himself for a moment, remembering the calmness he had felt knowing that Harry was coming to Hogwarts that year, and that he could start influencing the boy's path more directly.

The doors to the entrance hall opened, revealing Professor McGonagall and the twin lines of first years as they filed into the hall. Albus spotted Faykan immediately, the only child who didn't look utterly terrified, walking between Harry and the Malfoy boy, chatting animatedly to the pair of them. Albus watched them intently, and noticed the fine strings of magic wafting from Faykan and encircling both boys beside him. The streams of magic were so subtle that Albus doubted anyone had even noticed that day. The boy was clearly using magic mixed with his words of encouragement to keep his friends calm during the sorting. Not necessarily worrying in and of itself, but it betrayed the power that the boy had possessed from the very beginning.

Albus watched as the Malfoy boy was called up and immediately sorted into Slytherin, and Faykan nodded to himself as young Draco moved to sit at the emerald green table. Minutes later, Harry was called and set into Gryffindor, and again the boy nodded as if it was all going as he had suspected. Although, the boy could have just been good at guessing the traits of his friends and nodded as his guesses were confirmed.

" _Undol, Faykan!_ " McGonagall finally called, and the boy confidently walked forward and let her drop the Sorting Hat upon his head.

Albus moved up to kneel right in front of the child, listening to the faint murmurings of the hat. He couldn't hear anything specific, as the hat was clearly speaking inside Faykan's mind, but the boy was clearly agitated by whatever conversation he was having despite all efforts to mask his emotions. Truthfully he was indeed performing a masterful job of shrouding, Albus conceded, but if one looked close enough, the tense lines in his jaw and the way his fingers were curled into fists gave away all pretense, perfectly masked as nerves of a new first year.

" _SLYTH…_ " the hat started to call, and Albus saw Faykan's jaw open for a mere second before clenching in unmistakable fury, which caused the hat to go silent once again. Everyone in the room stared, but none of them would see the way the boy's hands were shaking, as the boy tried to contain his rage.

Finally, after the longest time a sorting had ever taken, the hat cried out exasperatedly " _Fine you stubborn boy, GRYFFINDOR!_ " Albus watched Faykan wrench the hat off his head in triumph, and carelessly drop it back onto the stool. Albus gaped as the boy made his way to sit by Harry; how had he not noticed it before.

Faykan was not merely the spitting image of his father… and grandfather, both of which Albus had seen at Hogwarts years ago. He was perfectly identical to both older generations! Everything, his posture, his features, everything about the boy was exactly the same as his supposed ancestors. But that was impossible, even people who looked exactly like one parent or the other had at least some features of both parents, like Harry looking exactly like James except for his mother's eyes. But not Undol, it was as if he was copied directly from his father… or… or he _was_ his father…

Albus pulled out of the memory with a jolt, how in three years had he never considered… Of course this theory would take time for him to unravel and test and he would need Severus' help, as he had many more memories about the elder Faykan Undol from years before. If Faykan Undol had managed to cheat his death at the hands of Voldemort, it would explain why he would seek out Harry Potter. It also confirmed the dangers that Albus had, as it would suggest that the boy was manipulating Harry to his own ends in fighting Voldemort another way.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry gazed across the table holding the _Palantír_ at Faykan, his eyes reflecting the swirling mists contained in the orb. Faykan had just finished his first lesson of Occlumency with Ron and Hermione, and was now preparing to do the same for Harry. Hermione had picked up the concept quickly, as usual, while Ron had taken a longer time to figure out the methods Faykan was instructing. Draco was not with them, as he had gone home for the holidays to prepare for the Yuletide celebration that Harry and Faykan were attending Christmas day, their invitations were to come later that week.

"Whenever you're ready Harry…" Faykan said soothingly. Harry took a deep breath, and cleared his mind of thoughts as Faykan had instructed them all over the last several weeks. Finally, he nodded his consent, and Faykan leaned to stare into the _Palantír_ , "Alright then… _Legilimens_."

Faykan's eyes went blank just as Harry felt a cool breeze slip around his head, throwing him into a different world entirely. Memories swirled around him, his memories, free and wild through a long flat plain that felt so comfortable and normal to Harry. " _We're inside your mind now._ " sounded a voice behind him. Turning, Harry saw Faykan standing there, gazing intently at Harry and completely ignoring the swirling bands of memory. Faykan spoke again, and his voice wavered between what Harry was used to hearing, and something that sounded much older; wiser and much deeper, " _And it seems to be in the condition I expected it to be._ "

'Where to begin?' Harry wondered, and was surprised when his voice sounded in his mind for Faykan to hear.

" _Quite simply Harry, we start with dividing off a portion of your mind… As I have done with Hermione and Ron, we simply need to shroud a portion of your mind to store the things I teach you in, leaving the rest untouched so that anyone trying to invade your mind will not become suspicious_."

Faykan pulled a wand from his robes, and waved it in a complicated pattern, uttering words that Harry couldn't hear or understand. Fog started to pour out of his wand, coating a large section of the plain of Harry's mind. " _Now Harry, I need you to focus on this fog bank, allow it to inhabit your mind. Accept it, and form your thoughts around it. I'll do the rest_."

Harry concentrated on moving his free flying memories and thoughts to encircle Faykan's fog bank, entwining it into his own mind. The flying colors and images obeyed his every command without resistance, twisting themselves around the fog, shielding it from sight.

" _Good job Harry, very well done. Even Hermione had difficulty controlling her thoughts and emotions in that manner. Next, you need to place all the memories of our lessons and whatever else you want to keep hidden within the fog bank. Finally we will together ward it to keep out intruders_."

Harry did so, and watched as every memory that contained Faykan sink into the mists, along with quite a few memories of life with the Dursleys, and several events from the last two years of Hogwarts. They all meshed and swirled just beyond the bank of clouds, hidden from view.

Faykan lifted his wand again, " _Tinechor i' rina tuulo' elea_ ," he chanted, moving his wand in a six pointed pentagram, which was etched over the cloud bank in blue lights. They glowed for a moment before settling into the mist. Faykan repeated the spell again, and again, moving around the protected area in a long, slow circle.

When he'd finished, Faykan looked over the defenses nodding to himself. " _And finally, as an extra precaution_ ," he pointed his wand at himself, " _kirma en' amin yamen' vee' vakha_." Faykan glowed bright gold, and a perfect copy of himself stepped forward into the mist, leaving another Faykan standing where he was, smiling to himself.

" _What was that?_ " Harry asked, surprised.

" _Just a nasty surprise if anyone manages to break into this vault of memories, I've done the same with both Ron and Hermione, as I will with Draco after the holiday_."

Harry nodded, still slightly confused. He understood part of what Faykan had done, finally reaching a point where he could listen and comprehend elvish, but there were still many words that eluded him as to their meaning. Harry wasn't completely sure if it was a good idea for Faykan to place parts of himself in four different people, however real they were or not.

Once again, Faykan turned and smiled at him knowingly, " _Don't fret Harry, the Guardians will only activate if they are needed, therefore they won't drain me of my power or concentration unless you all are mentally attacked simultaneously, which is highly unlikely to happen…_ "

And at once, Faykan vanished from Harry's mind like a brush of wind. Harry came back to himself, still sitting across the table from Faykan as his eyes refocused and he pulled away from the _Palantír_. "Well, that's three out of four. We'll be able to start the advance lessons after the break I think." Faykan said turning to look at Ron and Hermione, who were still practicing dueling spells on the other side of the room.

"Now you three need to remember to continue practicing clearing your minds, nightly would be the best, and consciously move new memories that you want protected into the mist vaults. It will do us no good if you don't actively use them…" he said with a small chuckle.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Sirius paced the inside of the Shrieking Shack, waiting for Mr. Undol to arrive. He had sent Crookshanks to deliver a message to the Gryffindor boy, telling him that Sirius wanted to speak with him, and how to reach the Shack from the grounds.

That was nearly an hour ago, and Sirius was starting to lose his patience. The Shack groaned as he walked across a weakened plank for what seemed like the hundredth time. His mind traveled back to Peter, still hiding comfortable in Gryffindor Tower, so close to Harry, and his blood boiled. The traitor! How dare he be so close to James' son! How dare he betray his friends and then crawl into the perfect place to finish what he had started! Sirius kicked a chair, sending it crashing against the wall in pieces.

"Whatever the chair did, I'm sure it's sorry…" drawled a voice from the doorway. Sirius whipped around, but it was only Faykan. The boy seemed to posses uncanny abilities at stealth when he wanted to. "So," the boy continued, sitting on the moth eaten bed in the corner of the room, "what did you wish to speak with me about."

"Where were you, I sent that note hours ago," Sirius asked, suspiciously. He still didn't trust this boy completely, even with his statement of trust in Sirius.

"I was with Harry and our friends, teaching them skills to keep us all safe, Sirius." The boy responded coolly, as if they were discussing the weather.

"Ah," said Sirius, calming down at the mention of Harry, "Well, I wanted to talk about Harry to be honest." He paused, watching the boy for any sign of distrust at the mention of Sirius wanting to know about Harry. He was aware that the Ministry thought he had escaped Azkaban to kill his godson, and he was appalled that they would think that, but then again, it was the Ministry. Coming to the wrong conclusion was their specialty.

Sirius was pleasantly surprised when Faykan didn't react to his request, but merely started talking about how Harry was, who his friends were, and their adventures the last two years at Hogwarts.

"I saw Harry play Quidditch earlier," commented Sirius, "How is his broom after that accident with the dementors?"

"Destroyed," Faykan said dully, "he hasn't thought about replacing it yet, ever since we snuck into Hogsmeade and he overheard the Minister accusing you of murdering your best friends, that shook him up and I don't think he's thought about his broom since."

Sirius deflated, he hadn't wanted Harry to find out about him in such a manner, "Does he hate me?" he asked quietly. "Not entirely," the boy responded, and Sirius perked up slightly. "I convinced him to use his own judgment and not to rely on what the Ministry or anyone else for that matter has to say." Sirius smiled for the first time since he escaped from Azkaban, Harry didn't hate him entirely, there was a chance for him to fulfill his charge to James and take care of Harry as his godfather.

"I know what I need to do, and I need your help Faykan." Sirius said suddenly. "I want you to draft an unsigned letter to Diagon Alley, purchasing the newest, best broom as a gift to Harry, I'll use the gold from the black estate account, and there should be more than enough there. Have it delivered by owl to him on Christmas."

Faykan grinned, and pulled out parchment for them to draft the letter. As they wrote out the request for the broom, Faykan said, "I wish you would tell me the truth as to why you are here, if it's not to watch over Harry. There's something, or someone that you are clearly after. I can tell. I wish you would trust me, I could be of so much help to you."

"I can't," Sirius said. He would not involve this young boy in his quest for vengeance, "it is a task for me alone."

"Very well, Sirius, but know that I am here if you change your mind." Faykan said in a slightly defeated tone. With that the boy turned and made his way down the stairs, the letter clutched tightly in his hands.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

On Christmas morning, Harry was woken by Ron throwing his pillow at him.

"Oy! Presents!"

Harry reached for his glasses and put them on, squinting through the semi-darkness to the foot of his bed, where a small heap of parcels had appeared. Ron and Faykan were already ripping the paper off his own presents.

"Another sweater from Mum... maroon again... see if you two got one."

Harry and Faykan had. Mrs. Weasley had sent Harry a scarlet sweater with the Gryffindor lion knitted on the front, and Faykan a deep blue one with a silver eagle, also a dozen home-baked mince pies, some Christmas cake, and a box of nut brittle each. As Harry moved all these things aside, he saw a long, thin package lying underneath.

"What's that?" said Ron, looking over, a freshly unwrapped pair of maroon socks in his hand.

"Dunno..."

Harry ripped the parcel open and gasped as a magnificent, gleaming broomstick rolled out onto his bedspread. Ron dropped his socks and jumped off his bed for a closer look.

"I don't believe it," he said hoarsely.

It was a Firebolt, identical to the dream broom he, Faykan, and Draco had seen in Diagon Alley. Its handle glittered as he picked it up. He could feel it vibrating and let go; it hung in midair, unsupported, at exactly the right height for him to mount it. His eyes moved from the golden registration number at the top of the handle, right down to the perfectly smooth, streamlined birch twigs that made up the tail.

"Who sent it to you?" said Ron in a hushed voice.

"Look and see if there's a card," said Harry.

Ron ripped apart the Firebolt's wrappings.

"Nothing! Blimey, who'd spend that much on you?"

"Well," said Harry, feeling stunned, "I'm betting it wasn't the Dursleys."

Ron suggested that it was Dumbledore, but Harry shot the idea down, knowing that the old wizard wouldn't spend that much money on a student. Faykan sat quietly on his bed, smiling at Harry and Ron's excitement over the broom, which caught Harry as odd. Faykan usually would have said something by now if he wasn't hiding something.

"Do you know anything about this Fay?" Harry asked.

Faykan raised his eyebrows in surprise, "No, not a clue Harry." he said unconvincingly. Harry smiled, and chose not to press at his best friend's obvious lie.

"What're you three talking about?"

Hermione had just come in, wearing her dressing gown and carrying Crookshanks, who was looking very grumpy, with a string of tinsel tied around his neck.

"Don't bring him in here!" said Ron, hurriedly snatching Scabbers from the depths of his bed and stowing him in his pajama pocket.

But Hermione wasn't listening. She dropped Crookshanks onto Seamus' empty bed and stared, open-mouthed, at the Firebolt.

"Oh, Harry! Who sent you that?" she asked.

"No idea." said Harry, despite his suspicions. "There wasn't a card or anything with it."

To his great surprise, Hermione did not appear either excited or intrigued by the news. On the contrary, her face fell, and she bit her lip.

"What's the matter with you?" said Ron.

"I don't know," said Hermione slowly, "but it's a bit odd, isn't it? I mean, this is supposed to be quite a good broom, isn't it?"

Ron sighed exasperatedly.

"It's the best broom there is, Hermione," he said.

"So it must've been really expensive..." she continued.

"Probably cost more than all the Slytherins' brooms put together," said Ron happily.

"Well... who'd send Harry something as expensive as that, and not even tell him they'd sent it?" said Hermione. Harry shot a glance at Faykan, who hadn't reacted at all to Hermione's statement.

"Who cares?" said Ron impatiently. "Listen, Harry, can I have a go on it? Can I?"

"I don't think anyone should ride that broom just yet!" said Hermione shrilly.

Harry, Faykan, and Ron looked at her.

"What d'you think Harry's going to do with it… sweep the floor?" said Ron.

But before Hermione could answer, Crookshanks sprang from Seamus' bed, right at Ron's chest.

"GET. HIM. OUT. OF. HERE!" Ron bellowed as Crookshanks' claws ripped his pajamas and Scabbers attempted a wild escape over his shoulder. Ron seized Scabbers by the tail and aimed a misjudged kick at Crookshanks that hit the trunk at the end of Harry's bed, knocking it over and causing Ron to hop up and down, howling with pain.

Crookshanks' fur suddenly stood on end. A shrill, tint, whistling was filling the room. The Pocket Sneakoscope had become dislodged from Harry's socks and was whirling and gleaming on the floor.

"I forgot about that!" Harry said, bending down and picking up the Sneakoscope. It whirled and whistled in his palm. Crookshanks was hissing and spitting at it.

"You'd better take that cat out of here, Hermione," said Ron furiously, sitting on Harry's bed nursing his toe.

"Can't you shut that thing up?" Faykan added to Harry as Hermione strode out of the room, Crookshanks' yellow eyes still fixed maliciously on Ron.

Harry stuffed the Sneakoscope back inside the socks and threw it back into his trunk. All that could be heard now were Ron's stifled moans of pain and rage. Scabbers was huddled in Ron's hands. It had been a while since Harry had seen him out of Ron's pocket, and he was unpleasantly surprised to see that Scabbers, once so fat, was now very skinny; patches of fur seemed to have fallen out too

"He's not looking too good, is he?" Faykan commented.

"It's stress!" said Ron. "He'd be fine if that big stupid furball left him alone!"

Harry just shook his head sadly, the problems with Crookshanks and Scabbers were not going to end pleasantly, he just knew it somehow…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus watched as the 'Gryffindor Golden Quartet' entered the Great Hall for lunch. He silently cast the Lynx Eye spell that Dumbledore recommended he try the next time he saw the four children, and raised his eyebrows in surprise at what he saw. The auras of the four children were peculiar, well; Grangers and Weasleys were rather ordinary, Potter's was as the Headmaster had orchestrated it to be, powerful yet limited, a block on him accessing his full potential until the right moment that he would need it.

But Undol… the deep blue aura radiated off him like fire, spreading across the room to touch everything he encountered, and if Severus wasn't mistaken, there were connections from Undol to his three friends, linking the boy to them. The connections to Weasley and Granger were thin and new, but Potter's was strong and powerful, connecting the two boy's hearts and minds. Severus glanced at Albus, who nodded once, signaling that he too saw this strangeness. They would indeed be discussing this later.

"Merry Christmas!" said Dumbledore as Potter, Undol, Weasley, and Granger approached the single table in the center of the room. "As there are so few of us, it seemed foolish to use the House tables... Sit down, sit down!"

The four children sat together at the far side of the table. Aside from the four Gryffindors, Severus, and Albus, there were present Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, Argus Filch, and two terrified first years.

"Crackers!" said Dumbledore enthusiastically, offering the end of a large silver noisemakers to Severus, who sighed but took it reluctantly and tugged. With a bang like a gunshot, the cracker flew apart to reveal a large, pointed witch's hat topped with a stuffed vulture. Severus was instantly reminded of the boggart incident, and glared at the hat, shoving it toward Albus, who swapped it for his own immediately. Potter and Weasley sniggered slightly and Severus glared at them.

"Dig in!" Albus advised the table, beaming around.

Severus took the time while digging into his plate of turkey and mash to study the interaction between the Headmaster and Undol. Albus was clearly trying to probe Undol and the other Gryffindors' minds, and with the Lynx Eye spell active, Severus could see the strands of Legilimens flying over the table at the four third years. The rebounded off Undol, as Severus expected, but pierced Potter, Weasley, and Granger easily. The strands wavered around in their minds for a few moments, and then withdrew, and Albus frowned. Something was amiss, clearly, or Albus would have just smiled with those damn twinkles in his eyes as he normally did when he had siphoned something from a mind.

Just as Severus was about to try himself to see what agitated the Headmaster, the doors of the Great Hall opened again. It was Sybill Trelawney, gliding toward them as though levitating. She had put on a green sequined dress in honor of the occasion, making her look more than ever like a glittering, oversized dragonfly.

"Sybill, this is a pleasant surprise!" said Dumbledore, standing up, eager for the distraction of his failed attempt at Legilimens.

"I have been crystal gazing, Headmaster," said Sybill in her mistiest, most faraway fake voice, "and to my astonishment, I saw myself abandoning my solitary luncheon and coming to join you. Who am I to refuse the promptings of fate? I at once hastened from my tower, and I do beg you to forgive my lateness..." Severus rolled his eyes to Minerva, who smiled thinly.

"Certainly, certainly," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "Let me draw you up a chair…"

And he did indeed draw a chair in midair with his wand, which revolved for a few seconds before falling with a thud, right in between Severus and Minerva, who both frowned. Sybill made no move to sit, but let out a soft scream as her eyes moved around the table.

"I dare not, Headmaster! If I join the table, we shall be thirteen! Nothing could be more unlucky! Never forget that when thirteen dine together, the first to rise will be the first to die!" she said

"We'll risk it, Sybill," said Minerva impatiently. "Do sit down, the turkeys getting stone cold."

Sybill hesitated, and then lowered herself into the empty chair, eyes shut and mouth clenched tight, as though expecting a thunderbolt to hit the table. Minerva poked a large spoon into the nearest tureen.

"Tripe, Sybill?"

The Divination teacher ignored her. Eyes open again, she looked around once more and said, "But where is dear Professor Lupin?"

"I'm afraid the poor fellow is ill again." said Dumbledore, indicating that everybody should start serving themselves. "Most unfortunate that it should happen on Christmas Day."

Sybill and Minerva started to snipe at each other about how the Divination teacher should have known about Professor Lupin's illness beforehand, Sybill retaliating with her same idiocy about her knowing, but choosing to ask for the sake of everyone else. Severus shook his head, irritated that he had to work with the woman, when Albus addressed him about the Wolfsbane potion that he had been brewing for Lupin all year.

Severus confirmed that yes he had indeed given Lupin the potion for this cycle of the moon, without actually mentioning those facts because of ignorant students and teachers around them. Only Albus, Severus, Minerva, Filius, and Pomona knew that Lupin was indeed a werewolf. Although Severus suspected that Undol and Granger might be putting the pieces together since he set the essay in the Defense class earlier that term.

Potter and Weasley remained oblivious as usual, however. Severus was very disappointed with the boy, he had all the intelligence of his mother, but the brashness of his father clouded his judgment far too often… thankfully he had Undol, Draco, and Granger to guide him, when he bothered to listen to them at least.

Finally, lunch started to come to a close, and Undol rose from the table, followed by Potter and Weasley, clearly to return to Gryffindor Tower and prepare for their evening invitation to Malfoy Manor. Severus had received their invitation in the mail, along with a portkey, which resembled a Christmas bell with the Malfoy crest embossed on the side.

Sybill gasped when Faykan rose however; making all four Gryffindors freeze in surprise. "My poor dear," she moaned, "Such a crime that you shall be the first to die of us thirteen, you have such potential with the gifts of the Inner Eye." She dabbed at her eye with her napkin, while Minerva scoffed, "I highly doubt Mr. Undol will simply drop dead soon Sybill, unless a mad axe-man is waiting outside the doors to slaughter the first into the entrance hall."

Everyone at the table, Sybill and Severus excluded, laughed at that.

Potter asked if Granger was going to join them, but she declined, and the three Gryffindor boys exited, and from the lack of screams, did not meet a bloody and untimely end from any axe wielding murderer.

Hours later, Severus waited in the entrance hall as Undol and Potter made their way down the marble staircase, both wearing dress robes for the Malfoy Yuletide party. Severus said nothing, but simply held out the bell, and after the two boys touched it, they were whisked away by the familiar tug behind their navels.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco stood calmly beside his parents in the front foyer, awaiting the first batch of guests to arrive. Aside from Harry and Faykan, most to all of the remaining guests were Draco's Slytherin classmates and their families, friends of Lucius', or important Ministry officials that had been invited because of their political positions.

Draco was turning to sit down when the sound of feet hitting the marble floor reached his ears. He turned back to find Faykan, Harry, and his godfather walking forward from the portkey arrival point. Harry was wearing the emerald green dress robes that he and Faykan had picked for him in Diagon Alley earlier that year, while Faykan's were silver with sapphires sown into the material. Severus wore his typical black robes, but they were fresh ones that Draco new he kept for these kinds of occasions.

Both Severus and Faykan bowed in turn to Lucius and Narcissa, and Harry shook hands with Lucius. Narcissa however, pulled Harry into a small hug, and Draco heard her whisper in his hear, "Welcome cousin." Harry raised his eyebrows, and Draco saw Faykan smile as he watched the two interact.

"Draco," Lucius said formally, "Please take your godfather and our honored guests to the ball room and entertain them while your mother and I await our other visitors."

"Yes Father." Draco replied, and he turned to lead his two best friends and his godfather away just as other families started to arrive.

As they walked, Harry told Draco all about the Firebolt that he was sent for Christmas, and how Hermione had gone and told Professor McGonagall about it, who confiscated it to be checked for hexes and jinxes because of Sirius Black. Draco watched as his godfather refrained from attempting to tell Harry off. When they reached the ball room, Severus moved quickly to the other side of the room, as far away from Harry and Faykan as possible, but Draco and his friends were distracted from their Potion Master's behavior by the steady flow of other guests that were lead by house elves.

Most of the new arrivals either sent quick glances at the two Gryffindor boys, or ignored them completely. Theodore Nott and his father openly glared at Harry, but Nott Sr. watched Faykan with what Draco thought was a mix of admiration and fear. Theodore simply smirked at him. Lucius and Narcissa appeared finally, Lucius talking to Cornelius Fudge and a short stout woman with the face of a toad, who was wearing bright pink robes. Draco heard Faykan exhale slightly as Lucius directed this woman and Fudge over to where they all stood.

"Ah and here's Mr. Potter." said Fudge, reaching out to shake Harry's hand, "Yes, you don't know what a fright it gave the Ministry when you just up and vanished this summer. Right after Black's escape. Whole Ministry up in arms until Dumbledore reassured us that you were merely taken to a safer location. Charming man Dumbledore… Oh this is Dolores Umbridge, Senor Undersecretary to the Minister." Fudge added, gesturing to the witch in pink beside him. Umbridge merely eyed Harry with a cold calculating gaze, making no move to shake his offered hand. It made Draco rather nervous. But finally Lucius pulled the Minister away, and the toad faced Undersecretary followed.

Faykan narrowed his eyes at their retreating forms, "Curious how close the Minister is with your father, isn't it Draco?" he said with a touch of sarcasm. Draco frowned; it was true that his father did have rather close ties to the Minister. Given what he had tried to do last year, Draco could only imagine what else Lucius could attempt to have happen.

His thoughts were interrupted as the small orchestra started up a waltz, and Daphne Greengrass came over to ask him to dance. Allowing her to pull him away to the dance floor, Draco snuck back a look at his friends, who were currently also being coaxed into dancing, Harry by Narcissa and Faykan by Ms. Zabini, Blaise's rather attractive mother.

Draco caught Harry's eye as they saw Mr. Nott waltz across the floor with Mr. Yaxley. Harry's expression was priceless, but thankfully Draco's mother bent down and whispered in his ear that in pureblood society, dancing was permitted between partners of either gender. Generally it didn't happen often among the married couples, but single adults, children, or pairs of people who merely wanted to hold a private conversation found it more agreeable than standing in a dark corner hoping no one was trying to eavesdrop.

Harry seemed to accept the explanation, as he returned to making sure he didn't step on Narcissa's feet, which wasn't necessary, as Draco knew his mother was an expert dancer, and could move her feet out of the way before Harry could realize that he was about to step on her. Draco spun his head, only idly listening to Daphne's chatter, and watched Faykan maneuver expertly across the floor with the dark skinned Ms. Zabini.

They were talking softy to each other, probably exchanging pleasantries and other neutral conversation topics, while Blaise watched them as he danced with Daphne's younger sister Astoria. The song ended, and Draco guided Daphne back to a seat by the groups of other people who had not danced yet, and noticed Theo Nott speaking with his father in hushed whispers, but he was dragged away again by Pansy Parkinson, who practically demanded that he danced with her.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus watched with a scowl as the second song started up. He had refused Mrs. Greengrass's invitation to dance, owning to him being a chaperone. He took a small measure of pride that that title at least excused him of needing to actively participate in the revelry, as would have been expected if he was an invitee. From the side of the room, he watched his two charges as they danced with several other young people and their parents. Potter seemed only slightly uncomfortable with the pureblood ideas of acceptable dancing, but was doing remarkable for his first actual ball. Undol, not surprisingly, was moving across the room with all the grace that one of his powers could create.

Silently, Severus cast the Lynx Eye spell on himself again, urged to observe the boy's magic at work once more. The bright aura surged and flowed around Undol, feeling around to everything near him while not lingering in one place too long. The only permanent connection that Severus could see was to Potter, the line of magic combining the blue and green auras into a bright gold.

Severus was not the only one watching Undol, he noticed. At one of the small tables of refreshments, he overheard Theodore Nott and his father muttering quietly. "I see what you tried to describe to me last year, Theo." Mr. Nott said to his son, "That boy is definitely far more powerful than anyone imagines. His magic practically sings as it flies off his body."

Severus remembered that the Nott family had the unusual trait of being able to naturally see powerful magical auras.

Theodore smirked as he watched Undol offer to dance with Potter for the third song, "His abilities are wasted with his infatuation with Potter." he sneered, "Perhaps I should be more forceful with my… ah… invitations."

Nott Sr. smiled wickedly at his son, "Perhaps you should Theo. Why don't you start with breaking them up here and stealing some of Mr. Undol's time for yourself?"

Theodore narrowed his eyes as he moved off toward to where Potter and Undol were dancing.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry was, despite some of the awkwardness during the first few dances, starting to enjoy himself as he was led through the fourth waltz of the night by Faykan. He was still unsure about the whole idea of men dancing with other men, but seeing how everyone was perfectly fine with it, he decided not to make a fuss. Not that he was uncomfortable dancing with his best friend; it just was something he had never considered being raised by the bigoted Dursleys.

Faykan was just telling Harry about Ms. Zabini and her interest in him, mentioning that she might be the safest person in the room next to Draco, having only a train of dead husbands she had conveniently outlived, when someone tapped Harry roughly on the shoulder.

Turning, Harry came face to face with Theodore Nott, who sneered down at him while playing with one of the rings on his fingers. "May I cut in?" he said coldly, taking Faykan's hand before Harry could object, and forcefully pulling the smaller boy away before picking up the dance, with him leading. Faykan clearly wasn't pleased with the situation, especially with Nott holding him just a bit close for comfort, using his superior height to force Faykan to follow.

Draco came up beside Harry and took his hand, picking up where Harry had left off with Faykan. They turned slightly so they could both watch Nott and Faykan, Draco with the same frown that Harry wore. "Any reason you can think of that would explain why he wants Faykan to be with him all of a sudden?" Draco asked.

Harry shook his head, at a loss of what had just happened. Looking back at the other dancing pair, he could make out through the crowd that Nott was definitely talking to Faykan, but his friend was clearly not interested in the conversation, and was only refraining from pulling away because of the scene it would create with all the other people so close.

Harry couldn't have been gladder when that song finally ended, and Faykan was able to escape Nott and return to them. "What was that about?" Harry asked him immediately, but Faykan merely shook his head, utterly refusing to discuss the event. Harry was about to press harder when the cold voice of Professor Snape sounded behind them, "Despite the wonderful time you both seem to be having, it is finally time to return to the castle. You will both follow me now."

Draco waved as Harry passed, and they were bowed out by Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, who continued the party after they turned back from the front foyer and Harry stepped through the fireplace behind Faykan, spinning in the network back to Hogwarts.

 _tinechor i' rina tuulo' elea : shield the memory from sight_

 _kirma en' amin yamen' vee' vakha : part of myself place as guardian_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _Very little changed for this chapter, aside from some pieces in the Albus section to more appropriately showcase that he was concerned for Harry's safety in addition to his plan, rather than literally controlling Harry and portraying himself as more villainous than I had intended. Otherwise, limited to paragraph separation and some minor grammatical changes for clarity. idea wise this is one of my favorite chapters oof my own ideas in book 3, outside the LotR sections, as it showcases some differences in the muggle world at the time with the Wizarding one. Thanks again for those who read and review, talk to you next time! ~F_


	36. Y3-C10: Plots and Blocks

_Happy early September gift! the Chapter is early, merely because I will not have access to a computer on this Thursday (I will be attending the Salt Lake ComicCon, you might find me if you are there and look for Darth Sidious, I would LOVE to talk to a fan in person!) so wonderful for all! please R &R, and as always enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Ten**

 **Plots and Blocks**

The rest of the Christmas holiday was rather tense, owing to Ron and Hermione.

Unlike Harry and Faykan, who had had the distraction of the Malfoy's party to take their minds off the Firebolt being confiscated, Ron was still feeling the sting of it as though it was his own broom being stripped down. Hermione, who remained convinced that she had acted for the best, started avoiding the common room. The three boys supposed she had taken refuge in the library and didn't try to persuade her to come back. All in all, they were glad when the rest of the school returned shortly after New Year, and Gryffindor Tower became crowded and noisy again. Wood sought Harry out on the night before term started.

"Had a good Christmas?" Oliver said, and then, without waiting for an answer, he sat down, lowered his voice, and said, "I've been, doing some thinking over Christmas, Harry. After last match, you know. If the dementors come to the next one, I mean... we can't afford you to, well…"

Wood broke off, looking awkward.

"I'm working on it," said Harry quickly. "Professor Lupin said he'd train me to ward off the dementors. We should be starting this week. He said he'd have time after Christmas."

"Ah," said Wood, his expression clearing. "Well, in that case… I really didn't want to lose you as Seeker, Harry. And have you ordered a new broom yet?"

"No," said Harry.

"What!" Wood exclaimed. "You'd better get a move on; you know… you can't ride that Shooting Star against Ravenclaw!"

"He got a Firebolt for Christmas," Ron chimed in.

"A Firebolt?" Oliver replied, looking thunderstruck, turning from Ron to look at Harry for confirmation. "No! Seriously? A-a real Firebolt?"

"Don't get too excited, Oliver," said Harry gloomily. "I haven't got it anymore. It was confiscated." And he explained all about how the Firebolt was now being checked for jinxes.

"Jinxed? How could it be jinxed?" Wood half-shouted, outraged.

"Sirius Black," Harry said wearily. "He's supposed to be after me, so McGonagall reckons he might have sent it."

Waving aside the information that a famous murderer was after his Seeker, Wood continued, "but Black couldn't have bought a Firebolt! He's on the run! The whole country's on the lookout for him! How could he just walk into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy a broomstick?"

Faykan coughed slightly and looked away, but Wood paid him no mind.

"I know," said Harry, glancing momentarily at his friend in confusion, "but McGonagall still wants to strip it down…"

Wood went pale. "I'll go and talk to her, Harry," he promised. "I'll make her see reason... A Firebolt... a real Firebolt, on our team... She wants Gryffindor to win as much as we do... I'll make her see sense. A Firebolt..."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco blinked as he returned from seeing inside his own mind. "That was, different…" he said.

Draco had some lessons in Occlumency before from his godfather, but nothing so simple or all encompassing. Faykan, who was currently grinning across the table at Draco's astonishment, must have special talents with the ability.

Draco looked back at the other three Gryffindors. Ron and Harry were in the center of the room, sparring with the swords conjured from the room, while Hermione was in the back with a pile of books surrounding her. "Now that all of you have the Occlumency shields in place, we must decide what to start on first. I do advise you all, these things will be very difficult and very complex, so you may not be able to make a lot of progress for a few years, but learning the theory at minimum would be valuable."

That started a long debate between everyone. Draco wanted to start with the elvish spells that they had all seen Faykan use, while Hermione wanted to attempt advanced transfiguration, possibly even attempt animagus change. Ron wanted to learn healing and ward magic, and Harry wanted to be able to cast spells silently, wandlessly, or both.

"Well," Faykan said after everyone made their wishes known, "First off, Draco, elvish magic is not difficult after learning wandless and wordless magic, and very difficult otherwise, so Harry's request would have priority over yours, sorry." He smiled apologetically, but Draco didn't mind. He presumed learning any of these sorts of things would be amazing.

Faykan continued, "Ward magic and healing work marginally off transfiguration, so those two can be learned in conjunction with each other. Wandless magic and wordless magic would be the best staring place, I think, while we also do mid to advanced transfiguration. Animagus forms I don't think you'll be ready for until fourth or fifth year at least. And of course we will be continuing with dueling spells and martial combat."

Ron sighed heavily, "Why do we need to learn to fight like medieval muggles anyway?" he asked.

"It's obvious isn't it," interjected Hermione, "lots of dark creatures are resistant or partially immune to magic, and what would you do if your wand was destroyed in the middle of a duel?"

Ron deflated slightly, scowling. He was finally seeing sense, or more likely he was still angry at Hermione about the Firebolt, Draco thought.

Faykan also commented that Harry should still learn the Patronus charm from Professor Lupin, to keep Dumbledore out of the loop of what they were up to. Draco saw Hermione frown at Faykan's wish to keep things hidden from the Headmaster. But, she held her tongue for the time being as Faykan explained that he would eventually teach the others the spell also, just in case Harry needed help with the dementors.

Draco personally was just heavily curious as to how much magic Faykan actually knew, and how much he was planning to learn alongside them. From what he had experienced with his good friend, and quite obviously the leader of their group, it was very suspicious how the thirteen-year-old wizard had so much knowledge, let alone the magic to actually do half of what he did.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Classes started again the next day. The last thing anyone felt like doing was spending two hours on the grounds on a raw January morning, but Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for the student's enjoyment, and they spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white hot logs. The first Divination lesson of the new term was much less fun; Professor Trelawney was now teaching them palmistry, and she lost no time in informing Harry that he had the shortest life line she had ever seen.

Hermione was growing quite sick of the old fraud's rubbish, how she kept praising Faykan, Lavender Brown, and Parvarti Patil of their "Highly developed Inner Eyes."

Hermione was growing more and more suspicious at how Faykan knew about her Time-Turner, because of all the small time related jokes he would start whenever she used it. Thankfully Ron, Harry, and even Draco remained oblivious to it, allowing her to move from her classes with ease.

The only other thing that greatly bothered her was Faykan's lack of trust towards Dumbledore. Wasn't the Headmaster supposed to be the great leader of the light, the most powerful wizard in Britain, and the only person He-who-must-not-be-Named had been afraid of?

It was illogical for anyone to distrust him, unless they had their own hidden agenda that would undermine the causes of Dumbledore… but Hermione couldn't find anything that pointed to Faykan working against the Headmaster, other than their advanced training, but there was nothing wrong with extra learning, right?

Could it possibly be the powerful magical object Faykan had used to shroud their minds; the _Palantír_ as he called it? Hermione would have to investigate it, if it was dangerous, she would definitely be having a long stern talking to the boy.

She almost didn't even trust going to the library to try and find anything about it. The last time she had tried to research anything thet Faykan had brought up so casually in his lessons, the amount she found for reference material summed up to myths and legends, and while she was trustful of the idea that all myths had a basis in fact, there were just too many coincidences to arguable point to the young teen knowing so much that had been lost or hidden away from the majority of the Wizarding world for tens, if not hundreds, of years.

She had contemplated going to the Headmaster anyway, and telling at least some of these things to him, but when she thought of that, she envisioned the terribly disappointed faces of her friends, and shuddered at the thought of losing the first group of friends that she had ever had.

Still, she wondered where she could look for some measure of confirmation that Faykan wasn't just highly imaginative or else under some sort of strange ideas regarding their lessons. It was almost as though he felt that he was preparing them all for a war… but that was absurd, wasn't it? She had to find out something, and soon… for their own safety, or at least her own peace of mind.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

At eight o'clock on Thursday evening, Harry left Gryffindor Tower with Faykan for the History of Magic classroom. Professor Lupin had chosen it as the place for the dementor lessons. It was dark and empty when they arrived, but Harry lit the lamps with his wand and together they had waited only five minutes when Professor Lupin turned up, carrying a large packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binns' desk.

"What's that?" said Harry.

"Another boggart." said Lupin, stripping off his cloak. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real dementor. The boggart will turn into a dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk he'll like."

"Okay." said Harry, trying to sound as though he wasn't apprehensive at all and merely glad that Lupin had found such a good substitute for a real dementor.

"So..." Professor Lupin had taken out his own wand, and indicated that Harry should do the same. "The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic, Harry… well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm." Faykan nodded to himself, smiling.

"How does it work?" said Harry nervously.

"Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus," said Lupin, "which is a kind of anti-dementor, a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor."

Harry had a sudden vision of himself crouching behind a Hagrid-sized figure holding a large club. Professor Lupin continued, "The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds upon: hope, happiness, the desire to survive, but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry that the charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it." Lupin looked over at Faykan for a moment, "But as you may or may not know, your friend Mr. Undol can conjure one. A Giant Eagle if I wasn't mistaken?" he asked. Faykan nodded once, confirming whatever Lupin meant.

"What does a Patronus look like?" said Harry curiously.

"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it." Lupin replied.

"And how do you conjure it?" Harry pressed, wanting to know everything before even thinking of confronting another dementor, even if it was just a pretend one.

The Professor smiled, "With an incantation, which works only if you are concentrating with all your might on a single happy memory."

Harry cast his mind about for a happy memory. Certainly, nothing that had happened to him at the Dursleys' was going to do. Finally, he settled on the moment when he had first ridden a broomstick.

"Right," he said, trying to recall as exactly as possible the wonderful, soaring sensation of his stomach.

"The incantation is this…" Lupin cleared his throat. " _Expecto Patronum!_ "

" _Expecto Patronum_ ," Harry repeated under his breath, " _Expecto Patronum_."

"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?"

"Oh, yeah…" said Harry, quickly forcing his thoughts back to that first broom ride. " _Expecto_ patrono, no, _Patronum_ … sorry, _Expecto Patronum_ , _Expecto Patronum_ …"

Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of his wand; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas.

"Did you see that?" said Harry excitedly. "Something happened!"

"Very good," said Lupin, smiling. Faykan was also smiling, as he crossed to stand behind Professor Lupin, giving Harry a clear field for the boggart "Right, then, ready to try it on a dementor?" Lupin continued.

"Yes," Harry said, gripping his wand very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding... Any second now, he might hear his mother again... but he shouldn't think that, or he would hear her again, and he didn't want to... or did he?

Lupin grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

It had taken three attempts for Harry to fight off the boggart-dementor. During his second try Faykan had had to intervene and summoned his own Patronus to protect Harry. The final try Harry was able to make enough vapors to keep the boggart-dementor from knocking him unconscious, but not enough to drive it away, which Faykan had to do again. Professor Lupin gave both of them large amounts of chocolate before dismissing them for the evening, encouraging Harry and setting up an appointment for them to continue the following week.

When they returned to the Tower that night, Harry had asked Faykan what memory he used to power his Patronus, causing Faykan to blush bright red and stammer for several minutes before quietly murmuring that it was the day he first met Harry in the park.

Harry mentally smacked himself for not thinking of that memory himself; he had been using things like the first time he rode a broom, winning the house cup last year, and finally only succeeded with the memory of Faykan telling him that he was a wizard, and coming to Hogwarts, leaving the Dursleys. Then Harry's thoughts wandered back to his mother and father...

He felt drained and strangely empty, even though he was so full of chocolate. All three times, he had heard his mother pleading with Voldemort not to kill him, and on the horrible second attempt, he had even heard his father, James, yell for Lily to take Harry and run. Terrible though it was to hear his parents' last moments replayed inside his head, these were the only times Harry had heard their voices since he was a very small child. But he'd never be able to produce a proper Patronus if he half wanted to hear his parents again...

Harry shook the thoughts from his mind as he and Faykan reached the portrait hole and climbed through. Harry distracted himself with thoughts about Quidditch.

Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. According to Wood, this was good news for Gryffindor, who would take second place if they beat Ravenclaw too. He therefore increased the number of team practices to four a week.

This meant that with Lupin's anti-dementor classes, which in themselves were more draining than six Quidditch practices, and the advanced training that Faykan was putting them all through, Harry had just one night a week to do all his homework. Even so, he was showing the strain nearly as much as Hermione, whose immense workload finally seemed to be getting to her.

Every night, without fail, Hermione was to be seen in a corner of the common room, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes; she barely spoke to anybody and snapped when she was interrupted.

"How's she doing it?" Ron muttered to Harry one evening as Harry sat in the Room of Requirement finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. Harry looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books.

"Doing what?"

"Getting to all her classes!" Ron said. "I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday's lesson, but Hermione can't have been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie McMillan told me she's never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she's never missed one of them either!"

Harry didn't have time to fathom the mystery of Hermione's impossible schedule at the moment; he really needed to get on with Snape's essay. A moment later, Faykan the Fox crept into the room from the Gryffindor side door, and changed immediately.

"Wood is so very annoying; I don't understand how you deal with him Harry. He practically ran me over looking for you, shouting about McGonagall not releasing your Firebolt yet." He said while rubbing his backside, Wood had apparently stepped on him while he was transformed.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Harry replied, unconcerned. Wood was Wood; his fanaticism was something that Harry had adjusted to since his first year on the team. Faykan just rolled his eyes and conjured several targets across the room, blasting each of them in turn with wandless, silent magic. Harry watched, slightly envious; he was very eager to start learning to cast without speaking or using his wand. It would be very handy when Voldemort came for him again, not if but when; Harry had accepted that Voldemort was not going to stop trying to kill him.

Faykan caught Harry watching him, and beckoned him over. Harry glanced at the essay he really should be finishing, and shrugged, stood, and moved to stand next to Faykan, Ron right behind him. Hermione looked up from her book, and contented herself to just watch them with one eye, while working on her homework with the other.

Draco came in through the seventh floor entrance, "Hello… Hey! Are you teaching without me!" he whined, running over to join the Harry, Faykan, and Ron in the center of the room, dropping his book bag along the way. Draco had been very adamant about them all being taught at the same time, so they had equal foundations to build on. Harry saw the sense in it, but on the other hand, he really was excited to get started.

"Lucky for you," Faykan said with a grin, "we were just starting." He turned to Hermione, "Do you want to join us or just watch for now, Hermione?"

She simply waved her hand at them, continuing to read her 'Monster Book Of Monsters.' Faykan simply nodded, and turned back to the three boys.

"So, wandless magic; as the name implies, you use your own body as the conduit for your magic instead of an exterior focus; a very powerful adaptation of magic, allowing more flexibility and control. To begin," he waved his hand, and more wooden targets appeared on the far side of the room, one for each of them, Harry noticed that they targets slightly resembled Wood, "You will try to cast the spells you normally would with your wand at these targets. To do so, use your hand to mimic the wand movement, and think the incantation in your mind. Pour your will for the spell to work behind the thought, imagining the effect on the dummy."

He demonstrated on the largest dummy, slashing his hand like a karate chop, and the target splintered with a cutting hex. He waved his hand again, softly, and the dummy repaired itself.

"Eventually you will lose the need for most hand gestures for wandless spells, as well as the need to pour all your thought behind its casting. They will become second nature to cast, even superseding spells with a wand. Now try a simple _Diffindo_ on the targets, and if you manage to damage them, try to repair the damage and try a new spell."

Harry, Ron, and Draco faced the three smaller targets. Hermione paused, her quill poised over the parchment, as she watched their first attempts. The three boys concentrated, Ron even scrunching his face up in the effort. And one by one they slashed their hands through the air. Harry felt a soft breeze whip around him, and hit an invisible wall, preventing his cutting hex from impacting the target very hard, causing only a minor scratch. Ron hadn't managed to cause any effect, but Draco had also caused a small cut on his target.

Faykan patted Ron on the back, muttering "Good attempt, try to envision the dummy being sliced instead of focusing on keeping your mind free of thought." then he turned to Harry and Draco. He nodded at Draco, acknowledging his success, but watched as Harry attempted the spell again. The wind, which Harry realized was his magic, whipped around him and hit the same block, barely marking his target.

"Something keeps blocking my magic!" Harry said, frustrated, as Faykan placed a hand on his shoulder. Faykan closed his eyes, and Harry felt magic swirling around both of them, entering Harry and searching for something.

Moments later Faykan spoke, "There's a block on your magic, a seal that was placed when you were young. It's preventing you from using your magic to its fullest potential, but… there's a massive crack in the ward. It's allowing a tiny amount of your magic to seep slowly from it," he opened his eyes to look at Harry. "Until that seal shatters, you won't be able to do a lot of damage with your wandless magic, but that won't stop you from learning the spells, or using wandless magic for transfiguration or healing."

Harry frowned, who could have put that kind of a block on his magic, and why? A bubble of frustration surged up inside of him. Why did his life have to be so complicated. As quickly as it came, it vanished, and Harry realized that Faykan's hand was still on his shoulder. His best friend was looking at him with those cool, piercing eyes, and Harry understood the empathy within them. Faykan couldn't stand seeing the amount of difficulty that Harry went through either, and that allowed Harry to calm down. It was good that at least someone perfectly understood what he was going through.

Draco and Ron practiced the cutting hex for twenty more minutes, and Harry used his magic to repair the damage they caused their targets. Finally, Harry knew he really had to get back to the Potions essay, thankfully Draco decided to help him out, which allowed Harry to finish the essay quickly, rather than having to stay up into the night.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus smiled as Severus Snape entered his office. "Ah, Severus. How nice of you to come. Would you care for a Lemon Drop?" he asked, gesturing to a bowl of the yellow sweets on his desk, casually sitting next to a pensieve. "No thank you, Headmaster." Severus said with a slight scowl. 'Pity,' thought Dumbledore, 'I'm so certain that Severus would like these if he just tried one. Maybe I'll slip one into his drink in the Great Hall one day.'

"Why did you summon me Albus?" Severus asked bluntly. He was always rather touchy when he was researching a new potion to brew. Albus was aware that he was experimenting with the _Athelas_ leaves that he acquired from Poppy after Mr. Undol's unfortunate accident in Defense Against the Dark Arts with the boggart.

"Ah, yes, Severus." Albus began slowly. This needed to be done delicately, or Severus might suspect what Albus was beginning to deduce about the young Gryffindor. "I was wondering, if you would mind allowing me to view several of your memories about Mr. Faykan Undol, not the one you know today, but his father, the one you were learning here with for your first three years."

Severus raised his eyebrows in mild surprise, "Why do you think that the boy's father would have anything to do with the boy himself?"

Albus took a small breath, to simulate an internal struggle for Severus to believe that he was going to reveal potentially dangerous information, "I think that he may have inherited some sort of dangerous object or power that might threaten Harry Potter and all our hopes for the wizarding world."

Whatever Severus had thought was the reason, it certainly wasn't that. "But…" he spluttered slightly before regaining control of himself and settling in a seat across from Albus' desk, "but if he had such a thing, why would he have waited for so long to use it?"

"I do not know Severus, that's why I need your memories of the father, to determine if there's anything he may have tried to hide." Albus knew that lying to Severus was going to be problematic if he ever found out, but Albus was confident that it was for the greater good, to prevent anyone from interfering with the prophecy. Harry must defeat Voldemort. Severus was nodding, and lifted his wand to his temple, once, twice, thrice… twelve times, depositing the silvery strands of memory into the pensieve.

"Thank you for trusting me Severus." Albus said. Severus merely nodded once, and swept from the room, his cloak billowing behind him.

'Now,' thought Albus, 'we may see if Mr. Undol of the nineteen seventies is any different from the Mr. Undol of today.'

With that, Albus leaned into the pensieve, tipping himself into the swirl of Severus' memories about his first friend at Hogwarts.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus stalked back down to his private potions lab after his short meeting with the Headmaster, his mind spinning with the information he had learned. Albus suspected Undol of having dark artifacts or powers and possibly the intent to harm Potter.

Sure the boy was powerful, bloodlines had great testimony to the passing of magical gifts and the Undols were no expection, but to be dark? Thinking back to his own memories, Severus conceded that the father, the one he had known as a boy had indeed had the ability to be very vindictive and spiteful, sometimes borderline malicious, but never to anyone innocent.

The truth of the matter was that he had not known the family long, despite the closeness with the older Undol that he had shared for the short time they were in Hogwarts together, the possibilities of what came after Hogwarts could be endless. Could the older Undol have joined Voldemort and hunted the Potters? Had they been Death Eaters?

It could even be possible that this younger Undol had joined forces with Sirius Black in the convict's attempts to murder the boy, Severus had no idea. The level of plots that could be going on in that boy's head were a mystery to him, and that troubled him more than anything.

All he knew was that he would be watching the boy like a hawk for the rest of the term. If he showed even the slightest hint of wanting to harm Potter, Severus would transfigure the boy into ingredients and brew him into poison to use on Black without hesitation.

His thoughts of Undol led him back to his small project that he had been working on before Albus had fire-called him. Severus was attempting to see if _Athelas_ could be used as a powerful base for healing potions.

If Severus was successful, it would be a breakthrough unheard of in the wizarding world. The only problem he was having was finding possible ingredients to add without diluting the restorative leaves: perhaps essence of dittany, or ground unicorn horn, perhaps even bezoars. Severus had very few leaves to waste in failure, so he had to plan out the potion carefully after studying the magical properties of the plant. That could take the rest of term just in itself.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Sirius was wandering the roads of Hogsmeade, giving random people the infamous 'doggy eyes' that had won him many meals in the months he had spent in the village. Most people fell in love with the adorable looks and playful attitude of the giant grim dog, after the initial shock of seeing him, and he was living very well off given the circumstances.

Sirius was making his way back to the Shrieking Shack, when he saw a smaller body turn out from an alley and watch him with most familiar blue eyes. Sirius' ears perked, and with his tail wagging, he turned and followed Faykan's animagus form deep into the alley between buildings, transforming only when the boy had laid privacy wards around them.

"Mr. Undol, what a pleasant surprise." Sirius said quietly. He didn't feel safe transformed in the middle of Hogsmeade.

Faykan handed him a piece of parchment. "These are the passwords to the Gryffindor common room for the next week, Crookshanks informed me that you need to get someone in there. He kept going on about a rat, but I'm not completely sure what he meant. I really wish you would let me help you more." He looked up pleadingly.

Sirius shook his head, "I'm sorry, but I must do this alone. He must pay…" he stop mid sentence, knowing he had been seconds away from spilling important information.

"Well," the boy responded, ignoring the fact that he was being refused for the twentieth time, "As long as you swear your not going after Harry, I wish you luck in finding whomever it is your trying to find."

With that, they both transformed, and whisked away to the Shrieking Shack, and Sirius watched Faykan continue on back to Hogwarts.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

February came with no change in the bitterly cold weather. The match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer and nearer, but Harry still hadn't ordered a new broom, hoping that he would get his Firebolt back. He was now asking Professor McGonagall for news of it after every Transfiguration lesson, Ron and Faykan standing hopefully at his shoulder, Hermione rushing past with her face averted.

"No, Potter, you can't have it back yet," Professor McGonagall told him the twelfth time this happened, before he'd even opened his mouth. "We've checked for most of the usual curses, but Professor Flitwick believes the broom might be carrying a Hurling Hex. I shall tell you once we've finished checking it. Now, please stop badgering me."

To make matters even worse, Harry's anti-dementor lessons were not going nearly as well as he had hoped. Several sessions on, he was able to produce an indistinct, silvery shadow every time the boggart-dementor approached him, but his Patronus was too feeble to drive the dementor away. All it did was hover, like a semitransparent cloud, draining Harry of energy as he fought to keep it there. Harry felt angry with himself, guilty about his secret desire to hear his parents' voices again.

"You're expecting too much of yourself," said Professor Lupin, sternly in their fourth week of practice. "For a thirteen-year-old wizard, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement. You aren't passing out anymore, are you?"

"I thought a Patronus would… charge the dementors down or something," said Harry dispiritedly. "Make them disappear, like Faykan's can."

"The true Patronus does do that," said Lupin. "But you've achieved a great deal in a very short space of time. If the dementors put in an appearance at your next Quidditch match, you will be able to keep them at bay long enough to get back to the ground."

"Or until I get my hands on them." Faykan added angrily.

"You said it's harder if there are loads of them," said Harry.

"I have complete confidence in you," said Lupin, smiling. "Here, you've earned a drink - something from the Three Broomsticks. You won't have tried it before…"

He pulled three bottles out of his briefcase.

"Butterbeer!" said Harry, without thinking. "Yeah, I like that stuff!"

Lupin raised an eyebrow.

"Harry was at my house this summer," Faykan explained quickly, "I have stocks of it since it's difficult for me to get around to Hogsmeade and other places when I can't use magic."

"I see," said Lupin, though he still looked slightly suspicious. "Well… let's drink to a Gryffindor victory against Ravenclaw! Not that I'm supposed to take sides, as a teacher..." he added hastily

They drank the butterbeer in silence, until Harry voiced something he'd been wondering for a while.

"What's under a dementor's hood?" Harry asked out of the blue, the thought springing to his mind and refusing to depart until he had an answer.

Professor Lupin lowered his bottle thoughtfully. "Hmmm... well, the only people who really know are in no condition to tell us. You see, the dementor lowers its hood only to use its last and worst weapon."

"What's that?" Harry asked, morbidly curious.

"They call it the Dementor's Kiss," said Lupin, with a slightly twisted smile. "It's what dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly. I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and… and suck out his soul."

Harry accidentally spat out a bit of butterbeer. "What! They kill…" he asked, choking.

"Oh no," said Lupin, "much worse than that. You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you'll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no... anything. There's no chance at all of recovery. You'll just exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever... lost."

"If you remain in that state long enough, around dementors, you body becomes like them. Sucking happiness out of the world to fill the void that they made in you." Faykan added, looking up from the book on transfiguration he was reading.

Lupin drank a little more butterbeer, and then said, "It's the fate that awaits Sirius Black. It was in the Daily Prophet this morning. The Ministry has given the dementors permission to perform it if they find him."

Harry sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth. "That's awful." He said.

Lupin raised his eyebrows, "Yes." He said, "Yes it is…"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, working on essays for Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies. Faykan was watching her from across the several tables she had claimed for all her things, absently petting Crookshanks as the cat stretched lazily on his lap.

Hermione smiled to herself, Faykan had bonded quiet closely with her cat, and Crookshanks came to him all the time for seemingly no reason, rubbing against his legs or mewling for his attention. He seemed to favor Faykan almost as much as he did Hermione.

"Hermione," Faykan said, breaking her out of her thoughts, "I know about _it_. You really should consider taken fewer classes, the strain is starting to affect you. The others are starting to notice, especially Ron."

Hermione opened her mouth to retort loudly, but just then the portrait hole opened, and Harry and Ron bounded in, the Firebolt over Harry's shoulder. There was a sudden, excited murmur as every head turned and the next moment, Harry was surrounded by people exclaiming over his Firebolt.

Hermione watched the crowd for a moment, and then turned to look at Faykan. He was watching Harry, his face seeming to glow with happiness at the joy on Harry's face.

"You love him, don't you?" Hermione asked, softly.

Hermione's suspicions were confirmed as Faykan's eye widened and he started to squirm in his seat, clearly startled that she had even asked. "I, um… well…" he sputtered for several minutes, and finally, his face bright red, he murmured so quietly that Hermione barley heard it, "Its complicated…"

The crowd finally dispersed, the interest over the Firebolt ebbing, and Ron and Harry moved over to where Hermione and Faykan sat. Faykan focused on scratching Crookshanks ears, avoiding looking up at the other two boys, as they gloated about the broom to Hermione.

Finally, Harry decided he should put him broom away, and Ron took up the charge of guarding it up the stairs, which Hermione found funny. Ron could be so strange about brooms sometimes. Harry moved to the couch that Faykan was sitting in, and sat next to him, not noticing the small squirms Faykan took to edge away from Harry slightly. Hermione noticed, and smiled slightly. Boys were so easy to read, especially ones with deep crushes like Faykan.

Crookshanks nudged Harry with his head, striving to get both boys petting him, and Hermione laughed in her mind at the small motions Faykan made to avoid touching Harry's hands by accident. Harry voiced his own concerns about Hermione's overfilled schedule, and Hermione declined losing any of the classes, there was simply too much to learn, and she wanted every drop of knowledge she could get.

She was about to explain why she loved Arithmancy to Harry, when a strangled yell echoed down the boys' staircase. Hermione jumped in her seat, as did both Faykan and Harry. Crookshanks dived off their laps and became a blur as he dashed under a chair.

The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder, and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bed sheet.

"LOOK!" he bellowed, striding over to Hermione's table.

"LOOK!" he yelled again, shaking the sheets in her face.

"Ron, what…?" Hermione tried to ask but Ron interrupted her.

"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!"

Hermione leaned away from Ron utterly bewildered. She snuck a glance at the other two boys. Both Faykan and Harry were looking down at the sheet Ron was holding, but she smiled to notice that Faykan was clutching Harry's hand, although both boys were oblivious to the fact they were touching. Hermione returned to looking at the sheets that Ron was waving in her face. There was something red on them, something that looked horribly like…

"BLOOD!" Ron yelled into the stunned silence. "HE'S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?"

"N-no," said Hermione in a trembling voice.

Ron threw something down onto Hermione's rune translation. Hermione, Faykan and Harry leaned forward. Lying on top of the weird, spiky shapes were several long, ginger cat hairs…

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have Been Warned!**

 _So, added more to Hermione's first section here, emphesising her doubts and fears regarding Faykan's desire to keep Dumbledore out of the loop, while meanwhile adding to both Severus and Albus' portions, albeit less so. I am planning a plot point that had been dropped during the first round of this story's production, where Hermione actually betrays the trust of her friends for their safety, and it will revolve around the Palantir, and things seen within. I chose to drop it at the time, but now I feel it would add more to the reasons that Albus would hasten his plans to separate Faykan and Harry, or at the least enforce that Faykan would fall into line with Albus' plan... as those who read the original know, this leads to Faykan's "death" and the plotline for book 5._

 _for those shippers who badgered me for years about FaykanXHarry, it will not happen! I planned it from the start, as it comes primarily through Hermione's perspective, to appear that their relationship had the potential for romance, but in fact be a brotherly love that is closer than that of real blood brothers, due to events learned at the end of book 6 and throughout 7... ironically, the original thought was to use this as an intention tease against those shippers to eventually prove to them that a platonic love was just as realistic, if not more so, than the romantic love that is so often desired between characters of the same gender. So, sorry, but it works better this way, and I found it amusing..._

 _as always, care for you all, and hope maybe to see some of you at SLCC! until two weeks time! ~F_


	37. Y3-C11: Dark Visions

_Many thanks to those who reviewed the previous chapter! Hopefully now that I'm back at school, my life and the work on editing this series once more will become more stabilized and we may see an upswing of preparation, by which I mean more than getting one chapter ahead on the editing in the midst of everything else, but we shall see. In other news, I am in a creative writing class, which finally is giving me the excuse I needed to start working on original material that shall inevitably help in my ultimate desire out of all my fanfiction writing: starting my own original fantasy novel series. much excitement to some! in the meantime though, R &R and enjoy the latest chapter!_

 **Chapter Eleven**

 **Dark Visions**

It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each was so angry with the other that Harry couldn't see how they'd ever make up.

Ron was enraged that Hermione had never taken Crookshanks' attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on him, and was still trying to pretend that Crookshanks was innocent by suggesting that Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds.

Hermione, meanwhile, maintained fiercely that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, that the ginger hairs might have been there since Christmas, and that Ron had been prejudiced against her cat ever since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagerie.

Personally, Harry was sure that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, and when he tried to point out to Hermione that the evidence all pointed that way, she lost her temper with Harry too.

"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she said shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"

Harry shook his head and returned to Ron and Faykan, who were sitting around the fireplace, and took a seat next to Faykan. Faykan moved over slightly to make extra room, and sent another glace at Hermione, sighing slightly. "What," Ron snapped, "Are you agreeing with her now Faykan? I thought we all agreed that Crookshanks ATE Scabbers?!"

Faykan frowned at Ron, "I don't agree with either you or Hermione, Ron. You are both acting like children about this. It is true," he added loudly, "that Hermione should have paid more attention to Crookshanks' behavior," Ron smiled gloatingly at Hermione, but scowled at Faykan's next words, "but, if you really cared about Scabbers, Ron, you would have done something more permanent to protect him, like transfigure a cage."

Ron snatched up his homework and stormed out of the room, leaving Harry and Faykan alone. "Git," Faykan said to himself, and he stood to leave as well, "want to come learn some more stuff Harry? I need to blow off some steam."

Harry smiled slightly, the only plus to having Ron and Hermione angry at them and each other was that he and Draco had Faykan's attention to themselves in the Room of Requirement. Their pace had quickened since Faykan did not need to help Ron when he struggled or explain everything four different ways for Hermione to copy, and Harry was enjoying the instruction immensely.

Both he and Draco were now learning to perform their second year spells wandlessly, as well as fourth year transfiguration and some minor healing spells. Faykan had also stepped up their magic and martial dueling training.

They now had to fight each other with wand and sword simultaneously, and were studying fifth and sixth year defensive spells. To be honest with himself, it was such a harder load than their normal schoolwork, and Harry now had a new meaning for the word exhausted.

As they entered the Room of Requirement, Harry saw Draco, who was reading a book entitled " _Mastering Spells Without Sound_ ," but he looked up as they entered. Faykan brushed past them and summoned targets around the room, and incinerated, demolished, and shredded each in turn with wandless magic. Draco shut the book, glancing at Harry with at look that clearly said, 'this workout is going to be painful.'

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

It had taken about a month for Albus to filly sort through the memories that Severus had given him, analyzing every possible detail and integrating it with the information he had already on Mr. Undol. He thought he might have found a few direct similarities, but he needed to recheck one particular memory to confirm them.

Bending over the pensieve again, Albus cleared his mind except for the thought of the memory he wanted to see.

Images flowed around him as he sank into the silvery depths, landing in one of the dungeon passages of Hogwarts. Albus spent a moment to orient himself, judging that he was near the Slytherin common rooms, when the eleven year old form of Severus Snape came around a corner, his nose deep in a Potions journal. So focused on his reading was the young version of Severus that he never noticed the shadowy forms that approached him from the corridor ahead.

Albus had been mildly aware about the rivalry between Severus and James Potter, but he had been too caught up with the beginnings of the First war with Voldemort to take much notice. Clearly with how Severus treated young Harry, he had put such childish feelings behind him. James stood in the middle of the corridor with his friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, waiting for Severus to run right into them.

" _Well, well, if it isn't Snivellus…_ " Black said sarcastically when Severus was about five feet away. Pettigrew laughed, while Lupin whispered something to James, who shook his head and stepped forward. "Y _ou think you're so smart don't you Snivellus, putting that porcupine quill in my potion when I wasn't looking_."

Severus smirked at James, who scowled in return. " _James I really think we shouldn't do this_." Lupin said hesitantly, looking around. James ignored him, and lifted his wand, pointing it at Severus, " _You humiliated me in front of the whole class, now I'm going to make you pay_." James started to cast, but Severus was faster. He lunged sideways, pulling his wand from his robes and dodging James spell, spinning to face him, " _Speculum_ ," Severus cried, but James blocked the stinging hex with ease, and Sirius retaliated with the tickling charm, which hit Severus, and he doubled over with angry giggles.

Albus watched the impromptu two-on-one duel for several moments, until finally, James tried to use _tarantallegra_ , but a new voice roared, " _Turma Varile_!" A shining blue bubble appeared around Severus, deflecting the jinx, and the four Gryffindors whipped around to see two Slytherin fifth years.

One was Undol, Albus presumed, while the other was a tall blond haired boy with a pale pointed face and cold grey eyes. Albus recognized him as a fifteen-year-old Lucius Malfoy. Lucius' prefect badge gleamed on his left breast, and his wand was in his hand, pointed directly at James. Undol had cast the protection charm over Severus, and was now spinning his ebony wand lazily in his hand, watching the four Gryffindors with his piercing blue eyes.

" _Oh ho! Look at this Lucius! Little cubs wandering around in the snake pit!_ " Undol said, laughing, " _And they dare to attack one of us! Careful little cubbies, you never know what'll happen when you poke a snake_." He added, taunting the four younger boys.

" _I... don't need your help!_ " Severus yelled hoarsely. During the exchange, Albus stepped closer, trying to get a picture of the older Undol's features, drawing the frightening similarities, no… perfect identical copy between father and son. Even the Venficium were there, just barely visible on either side of the boy's neck.

Lucius raised his eyebrows at the first year Severus' complaint, while Undol just grinned at him, " _You need to learn Snape, your one of us, which means… we protect you. Accept it_." He said casually, meaning every word from what Albus could tell.

The boy's blue eyes flashed as he raised his wand, stepping into a dueling position against the Gryffindor first years, Lucius standing behind him, almost looking bored.

" _Let's see if they can hold their own against a more mature viper_." Undol sneered, and attacked James with a flash of blue light.

James dodged out of the way, stumbled and fell as Undol shot a tripping hex at him. Sirius tried to disarm Undol, but it was blocked with a casual flick of the older boy's wand. " _I thought that the heirs of the noble houses of Black and Potter could do better. I'm disappointed_." Undol taunted them.

Both boys glared at Undol

" _Fay…_ " Lucius drawled, " _Don't play around with them; we have Arithmancy in five minutes…_ "

Undol frowned, then grinned as an idea struck him, " _Just enough time for this then…_ "

Another spin of his wand, a flash, and James, Sirius, and Peter were floating in the air upside down. Their wands clattered to the floor as their robes fell over their faces. Both Lucius and Severus grinned while Undol laughed loudly at the three hanging boys.

Remus look fearfully at Faykan, who tilted his head as he studied the Gryffindor, " _You…_ " he said slowly, as though pondering whether to punish Remus as well, " _you didn't mock one of us, or try to attack him. So I'll let you go, for now_." He said finally, patting Remus on the head as he walked past him to help Severus.

Lucius also walked over and helped Severus to his feet, and together the three Slytherins walked away, leaving Remus to try and figure a counter to the spell that had been used on his friends.

Albus followed the three boys up to the entrance hall, listening in as they chatted about classes and other non-important subjects. Undol had put one hand on Severus' shoulder, guiding him through several secret passages.

" _What spell did you use to string them up like that?_ " Severus asked quietly, as if the need for asking was appalling to him. The older boy grinned, quietly explaining the spell to him as they walked, Lucius shaking his head at the erratic gestures his friend was using in his descriptions.

Albus pulled out of the memory, thinking hard. The Slytherin Undol had spoken what sounded like elvish, was an exceptional duelist, and was physically identical to his present-day duplicate. The clues were there, but there wasn't enough solid evidence to prove that Albus wasn't grasping at straws. The Undols had been careful their entire live to guard their secrets well.

But Albus wasn't the most powerful wizard in Britain for nothing. He would find out who Faykan Undol really was, how to enlist the boy to his side of the future conflict, or else remove him from a place to disrupt anything in a damaging fashion.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco rolled his eyes as he watched Harry come into the Great Hall for breakfast, his new Firebolt on his shoulder and surrounded by the Gryffindor third year boys like a guard of honor. Harry, Faykan, and Ron glanced at the Slytherin table, smirking with satisfaction that the rest of the Slytherin team were all thunderstruck.

Draco felt a twinge of worry and envy; he had difficulty beating Harry when he had an inferior broom then Draco. Now with a Firebolt, it would be near impossible for him to win at Quidditch. But he quickly smothered the emotion, allowing himself for feel happy for Harry. With all Harry had to live through, he deserved nice things. If that meant that Draco would continue to be second best he could live with that, Malfoy pride aside.

Ignoring the mutterings and glares of the other Slytherins, Draco made his way across the Great Hall to congratulate Harry on his new broom. Let the fools talk, none of them had so far attempted to harm him. They all still feared the potential power of the son of Lucius Malfoy.

As he approached, Draco noticed that only Faykan and Ron were sitting next to Harry; Hermione was down the table with the second and first year Gryffindors, occasionally glaring in the three boy's direction.

'Still fighting,' Draco surmised, smiling inwardly. He would be glad to have Harry and Faykan to himself for a while, not that he didn't like Ron or Hermione.

True Hermione was a bit of a know-it-all and Ron was a hot headed git a lot, and that they had both been really unfriendly for the most of first year, they had all grown closer after the adventure on the third floor and even more so after the Chamber of Secrets fiasco. Ron was still a git occasionally, but he was a Weasley; it was to be expected that they were tactless gits a lot of the time.

Draco slid into a group of Hufflepuffs that were admiring the Firebolt just in time to hear Percy Weasley talk about a small wager he had made with his girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, on the outcome of the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match. Draco took a seat next to Faykan when he got through the throng of Hufflepuffs, and his closer friend of the group nodded at his appearance.

"Hey Potter!" Nott called from across the Hall, "I hope that broom has a sticking charm on it, so you can stay on this time when the dementors come for you!"

Many of the Slytherins laughed, but Draco saw Faykan shake his head in amusement. Harry had a small smile on his face, and Draco lifted his eyebrows. They were up to something…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione had never been over enthusiastic about Quidditch. But her friendship with Harry pulled at her to be here, to support him. It was moreso important as the dementors were still close by and had attacked once before. She could see Faykan several rows in front of her, next to Ron, fingering his wand nervously as he watched Harry speed around the field on his Firebolt.

The announcer, Lee Jordan, kept being distracted from the match to comment about this or that detail on the Firebolt, and Professor McGonagall had to remind him to return to the score over and over. Hermione settled to just watch Harry and the female seeker from Ravenclaw, Cho Chang. The older girl kept tailing Harry closely, which Hermione thought was odd. Wasn't it the point for them to both be looking for the Snitch? After a short time of observing this, Hermione saw the tactic for what it was as Harry dived and Chang moved to block him. She was just trying to prevent Harry from getting the Snitch himself.

Harry seemed to recognize the trick as well, as he started to weave up and down at full speed, which Chang could not hope to keep up to. Suddenly, Harry changed direction again, pelting toward the Ravenclaw side of the field, Chang following his movement from below.

They had seen the Snitch!

Suddenly, Chang screamed, pointing down. Hermione looked, and saw three tall, black, hooded dementors on the field, looking up at the seekers. Harry didn't even pause as he drew his wand from his Quidditch robes and swung it down, roaring, " _Expecto Patronum!_ " and continued speeding after the tiny winged ball.

An enormous four legged animal erupted from his wand, bearing down at the three "dementors" and they fell back, trying to run away. Madam Hooch's whistle sounded, and Hermione saw the Gryffindor team swarming over Harry, who had the Snitch in his hand along with his wand. Hermione followed the rest of Gryffindor House down to the pitch to congratulate Harry.

"That's my boy!" Wood was yelling. Alicia, Angelina, and Katie had all kissed Harry; Fred had him in a grip so tight it looked like Harry was going to suffocate.

"Yes!" Ron yelled as he and Faykan ran up, and he yanked Harry's arm into the air. "Yes! Yes!" Faykan lifted Harry into the air by the waist and spun him around once, beaming in relief and happiness the entire time. Hermione smiled again, seeing Faykan and Harry interact was rather entertaining, given what she suspected about them.

"Well done, Harry!" said Percy, looking delighted. "Ten Galleons to me! Must find Penelope, excuse me…"

"Good for you, Harry!" roared Seamus Finnigan.

"Ruddy brilliant!" boomed Hagrid over the heads of the milling Gryffindors.

Professor Lupin came up behind Harry and said something in his ear. Harry responded excitedly, but Hermione couldn't hear because of the crowd. The Professor began to lead Harry away, followed closely by Faykan, and Hermione felt it safe to return to Gryffindor Tower. She would congratulate Harry herself in private later, and she had some Muggle Studies reading to finish by Monday.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Sirius' patience had run out. He had waited just long enough to watch Harry's match against Ravenclaw, which he was delighted to see Harry riding the broom he had bought with Undol's help. But he had to get at Peter before he could hurt Harry. Getting into the castle was as simple as last time, having the knowledge of all Hogwarts' secrets from his school years. Sirius climbed the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, and stopped when he was encountered the by insane picture of Sir Cadogan.

"Stand and deliver you cur!" the knight shouted when he saw Sirius approach. Frowning, Sirius pulled the parchment that Faykan had given him. Scanning it quickly, Sirius found the password for that day, the person who wrote it had marked the days of each one.

"Chivalrous rogue." He read flatly.

"Indeed!" the knight said, swinging the portrait open.

Sirius paused for a moment, then changed into the grim and cautiously padded inside. Checking that no one was around, he trotted up the boy's staircase, stopping at the very top where the sign read: " _Third Years_." Nudging the door open, Sirius crept inside, changing back into himself.

The six beds gave him a rush of memories about James, Remus, and Peter. He spotted Harry at once, as his curtains were open and a gleam of moonlight glistened on his face. Sirius watched his best friend's son sleep for several moments, tears sliding down his face at all the pain they had lived through.

A small cough startled him, and he turned to the bed next to Harry's. The Undol boy was sitting there, peering at Sirius through the curtains. Sirius leaned down to be right next to the boys face, "Which one is Weasley?" he asked softly. The boy's eyes widened in a rapid progression of emotion starting at confusion, then irritation, followed finally understanding and resignation. He finally pointed, and Sirius followed his finger to a bed in which a red haired boy slept; the same boy he had seen in the _Daily Prophet_.

Sirius searched quietly around the bed for several minutes, but could find no trace of the rat. He pulled out a large knife he had found on his way from Azkaban, and began slicing the canopy and curtains carefully to see into the bed without pulling them apart and disturbing the boy.

But even the soft tearing noises were too much; the boy stirred and slowly opened his eyes. Sirius froze as the redhead locked gazes with him. The boy opened his mouth wide, and Sirius bolted at the same time that the Weasley boy screamed. He was out of the common room before anyone else even saw him.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night. They knew that the castle was being searched again, and the whole House stayed awake in the common room, waiting to hear whether Black had been caught. But Professor McGonagall came back at dawn, to tell them that he had again escaped.

The next day, the students found several drastic measures that had been taken to tighten security, such as Professor Flitwick warding the front doors from admitting Sirius Black, to Filch literally boarding up cracks and crevasses with planks of wood.

Sir Cadogan had been fired. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor, and the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was still extremely nervous, and had agreed to return to her job only on condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

Ron had become an instant celebrity. For the first time in his life, people were paying more attention to him than to Harry, and it was clear that Ron was rather enjoying the experience. Though still severely shaken by the night's events, he was happy to tell anyone who asked what had happened, with a wealth of detail.

One thing had been bothering Harry about it however. Why had Black ran when Ron had woken? If the Ministry was to be trusted, Black should have simply silenced Ron and proceeded to Harry. The only possible threat to him in the room had been Faykan, and he was sound asleep like the rest of them. On the other hand, if he wasn't trying to kill Harry, then the question was why he was trying to get into the Tower at all. It was so confusing to Harry that he couldn't think about it for long without getting a headache.

Neville was in total disgrace. Professor McGonagall was so furious with him when she found out he had written the list of passwords that Black had used, she had banned him from all future Hogsmeade visits, given him a detention, and forbidden anyone to give him the password into the tower.

Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the common room every night for somebody to let him in, while the security trolls leered unpleasantly at him. At least Faykan was kind enough to wait up every night for him. None of these punishments, however, came close to matching the one his grandmother had in store for him. Two days after Black's break in, she sent Neville the very worst thing a Hogwarts student could receive over breakfast… a Howler.

Harry was too busy feeling sorry for Neville in the midst of his grandmother's roars to notice immediately that he had a letter too. Hedwig got his attention by nipping him sharply on the wrist. "Ouch! Oh… thanks, Hedwig." Harry exclaimed.

Harry tore open the envelope while Hedwig helped herself to some of Neville's cornflakes. The note inside said:

' _Dear Harry, Faykan, and Ron, How about having tea with me this afternoon_ ' _round six? I'll come collect you from the castle. WAIT FOR ME IN THE ENTRANCE HALL_ ; _YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED OUT ON YOUR OWN. Cheers, Hagrid_ '

"He probably wants to hear all about Black!" said Ron, brightening immediately. Harry saw Faykan shaking his head behind Ron; he was letting his instant fame go to his head after all.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was rather thankful that Hagrid had sent her a note to inform her that he would be having Harry, Ron, and Faykan at his hut that evening.

Not only did she have the Room of Requirement to herself for once, but she could finally investigate the _Palantír_ for signs of dark magic. Whenever she had tried to take a look at it before, someone would always be in the room and ask her what she was doing. But then she and Ron had had their fight and she hadn't been able to get in the room for weeks.

So, in the meantime, she had been helping Hagrid during that time, preparing him for the case against the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures that was meant for that Friday. But now the boys were gone, and she had full reign of the room for an hour or so.

Walking into the room, she glanced immediately toward the circle of chairs. The orb was still there, settled in the center of the table with the black cloth draped over it. Hermione checked her watch as she approached the table; it was just past time for the meeting with Hagrid

Nodding, Hermione reached forward to pull the cloth away, and she hesitated. Would it really be right to do this behind Faykan's back? Yes, she convinced herself, it was right to make sure that the object that had allowed him access to her and her friend's minds was safe.

The cloth came away with ease, revealing the swirling blackness of the stone. Trembling slightly, Hermione reached her hands forward to lift the stone into the air. Her fingers inches away from the surface of the orb, she froze. The mist inside the stone had started to unfurl, and the lights around the room dimmed.

'Oh no!' Hermione thought in desperation, trying to figure a way to stop herself from gazing into the stone, but her hands wouldn't move, frozen in their position on either side of the orb. Her eyes locked onto the swirling depths of the _Palantír_ , and she gasped at the visions that swarmed over the surface of her mind.

A myriad of faces swam past her eyes, Harry, Ron, Hagrid, Professor Flitwick, and many others she knew mixed in with hundreds that she could not place or recognize. Then the _Palantír_ glowed from within, and Hermione saw Harry lying on the bank on the black lake, screaming in pain as hundreds of dementors glided down upon him. Another man lay near him, and the dementors seemed eager to attack the man. Their black robes swirled as they set upon both of them, and Hermione cried in terror.

The vision shifted, and she saw Faykan and Dumbledore in a darkened house, pulling a golden locket out of a dusty closet. Dumbledore eyed it, and gave it to Faykan, who resisted until the older wizard forced the chain over his neck. And the orb darkened, changing the scene again.

The next vision was of Faykan, but he was not the same.

His face was drawn, and full of a malice that Hermione could never have imagined on the kind face. Even his eyes were different, no longer the bright blue that seemed to see through people, but they were crimson, glowing with dark power.

Faykan stood in the middle of a huge gathering of the foulest, most ugly creatures Hermione had ever seen. They were tall, armored, with black skin and large fanged mouths. They carried spears, swords, and massive shields emblazoned with a clawed white hand. They were roaring, stamping their feet, pounding their shields and spears and making tons of noise, celebrating. Around them was a large wasteland on the boarders of a burning forest. Hermione stood in shock as Faykan raised once hand, and the creatures fell silent immediately.

Faykan spoke, his voice magically magnified, and Hermione heard harsh cruel words, but could understand. " _A new power is rising! Its victory is at hand!_ " Faykan paused as the creatures around him cheered once, high and cold. " _This night, the age of men will fall! We march on London! Leave none alive! To War!_ " he roared, and the army of monsters roared with him, forming into long lines to march through the burning forest. Faykan smiled as the creature passed around him, and the light of the flames reflected the locket around his neck, illuminating the ornate letter ' _S_ ' cut into the metal. Fire plumed as the orb shifted once more, revealing a sight that made Hermione want to scream.

London was in flames.

The hideous creatures ran through the streets, cutting down wizard and muggle alike with impunity. Groups of people were trying to fight them off, but there were simply too many. For every creature they slew, more appeared in their place. Hermione gasped as she saw Dumbledore fighting alongside the Weasleys and a band of muggles. Casting stunners and entrapments, Dumbledore felled creature after creature, standing like a monument of stone before a storm, immovable, unstoppable.

Then a high pitch shriek sounded from above, and the defenders looked up in terror. A large dragon was swooping at Dumbledore. Black scales glistened on its hide, and cruel horns curved off its head. But the shriek came not from the dragon, but the rider. Faykan laughed, a high cold sound, as his mount landed before Dumbledore, who raised his wand at the much younger wizard.

" _Hello Faykan_." Dumbledore said solemnly, wearily. Faykan continued to laugh, pulling the reins of his dragon to the side to present himself before Dumbledore. He was clad in black battle armor, draped over with a dark cloak, and upon his head was a tarnished silver crown. The locket bounced off his chest as he settled on the dragon's back. His eyes glowed with hatred as he looked down at the Headmaster. " _Dumbledore…_ " he said, and the people around Dumbledore shielded their ears at the screech of his voice. " _Do you not know death when you see it, old man!_ " he said drawing a black wand from his belt. " _This is my hour!_ " Faykan cried, fire spiraling off the end of his wand.

" _My boy_ ," Dumbledore said calmly, as the battle raged around them both, " _I am sorry for what you have become, but I must stop you_."

Faykan laughed again, " _What I have become?_ " he mocked, " _I have taken my place in the realm of this world. The world of men will fall; the Age of the Orc has come! Die now, and curse in vain! Avada Kadavera!_ " The green jet of light launched from the end of the wand, striking Dumbledore before he could even retaliate. The aged wizard fell, and Hermione fell with him, spiraling into blackness as the orb and its horrible visions fell silent.

The torches around the room relit as Hermione dropped the _Palantír_ back onto the table with a heavy _thump_. She stepped back and fell into a sit, overcome with pure shock at what she had seen. Faykan become as evil as You-Know-Who, or even worse? It couldn't be true, could it?

But he was so nice, especially to Harry. And then there was the thought of Harry! His death at the hands of dementors caused new tears to burst down her cheeks. No, it couldn't be true, and even if it was, Hermione would do all in her power to stop it. This terrible future she had seen would not come to pass if she had anything to say about it.

And what about the stone? She looked toward the black orb again, lying there on the table, seemingly tame and quiet. Should she tell a teacher? Dumbledore? She didn't know what to do. If she told and someone took it away, Faykan would find out, and what then?

No, she would leave it here, and keep the information to herself for now. Slowly Hermione staggered to her feet and checked her watch. It was fifteen minutes to seven; the boys would be coming back from Hagrid's very soon. She should get back to the common room. With that she covered the black ball once again and dashed out the door.

 _Speculum : Sting (Latin)_

 _Turma Varile_ _: Shield_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You have been Warned!**

 _Primary change throughout this chapter was dividing up the overlarge paragraphs into smaller and more correct sizes, allowing for a more concise flow of thought rather than information dumps one after another. one major issue I had with my early writing was getting on a train of thought, and due to my unique method of clinging to plot points, just continuing with run on sentences and paragraphs. hopefully this run through it is a little more clear for others that can't quite as easily follow my madness._

 _Plot wise, clarity was added to the primary Dumbledore and Hermione sections, in order to state better how Dumbledore is growing convinced that the Faykan of Severus' generation is the same as the Faykan of Harry's, but he has nothing that would be admissibly as proof to others aside from his own brilliant deductions, as well as Hermione's indecision about coming forward with the contents of her traumatic vision of a potential future where Harry dies and Faykan becomes the next great evil, eclipsing even Voldemort in power and darkness. the hearty callbacks to Saruman and the Witch King served the metaphor quite well in my mind, as a return to those level of evil would be an estimation that she could grasp. while true that the palantiri did not trypically show things akin to the future, I took a bit of liberty and mixed their function with that of the mirror of Gladriel, which might have been possible, as the two objects held similar functions during the canon of LotR, allowing the user to gaze beyond space where they were and see things from afar._

 _until next time, much graditude to you all, and I hope you have a pleasant couple of weeks until I upload the next chapter! ~F_


	38. Y3-C12: Marauders

_Much thanks to those who sent positive messages over the last two weeks. The previously mentioned hater situation is, for the time being, resolved. I expect it'll continue to flare up until all my stories are done and fall into obscurity, but until then we have much fun to the same vien of thinking, here is the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Twelve**

 **Marauders**

That Saturday was the next Hogsmeade weekend. Harry had noticed that his route to the village through the one eyed witch statue was still unnoticed by Filch, and his hopes were high that he and Faykan would be able to use it once again.

Hermione had expressed her displeasure of Harry's wanting to go back to the village when he and Fay had been denied permission from Professor McGonagall, going so far as to threaten to rat them out. They ignored her, and had set plans to explore the rest of the village that day.

On Saturday morning, Harry packed his Invisibility Cloak in his bag, slipped the Marauder's Map into his pocket, and he and Faykan went down to breakfast with everyone else. Hermione kept shooting suspicious looks down the table at them, but he avoided her eye and was careful to let her see them walking back up the marble staircase in the entrance hall as everybody else proceeded to the front doors.

"'Bye!" Harry called to Ron. "See you when you get back!"

Ron grinned and winked.

Together Harry and Faykan ran up to the third floor, Harry slipping the Marauder's Map out of his pocket as they went. Harry kept watch as Faykan whipped out his wand and approached the statue. Harry stopped him; a tiny dot was moving in their direction. Harry squinted at the tiny writing next to it, and read Neville Longbottom.

Harry tossed his bag to Faykan, who muttered, " _Dissendium!_ " and shoved the bag into the statue's hump, but before either could climb in, Neville came around the corner.

"Harry, Faykan! I forgot you two weren't going to Hogsmeade either!"

"Hi, Neville," said Harry, moving swiftly away from the statue and pushing the map back into his pocket. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing," shrugged Neville. "Want a game of Exploding Snap?"

"Err… not now, we were going to go to the library and do that vampire essay for Lupin…" Harry lied.

"I'll come with you!" said Neville brightly. "I haven't done it either!"

Faykan jabbed Harry in the ribs with his elbow.

"Err, hang on… yeah, I forgot, we finished it last night!" Harry corrected quickly, rubbing the sore spot and wincing. Faykan still had very sharp elbows.

"Great, you can help me!" said Neville, his round face anxious. "I don't understand that thing about the garlic at all, do they have to eat it, or…"

He broke off with a small gasp, looking over Harry's shoulder.

It was Snape. Neville took a quick step behind Harry.

"And what are you three doing here?" said Snape, coming to a halt and looking at each of them. "An odd place to meet…"

To Harry's immense disquiet, Snape's black eyes flicked to the doorways on either side of them, and then to the one eyed witch.

"We're not… meeting here," said Harry. "We just, met, here."

"Its not a crime to be out in the corridor during the day is it, Professor?" Faykan said, slightly mockingly. Snape scowled at him.

"You have a habit of turning up in unexpected places, Mr. Undol, and you are rarely there with no reason in mind... I suggest that you three return to Gryffindor Tower, where you belong."

The three Gryffindors set off without another word. Looking back as they turned the corner, Harry saw Snape running his hands over the statue's head, examining it closely.

After ditching Neville in front of the fat lady, Harry and Faykan dashed back toward the third floor. Harry rechecked the map when they were alone, the corridor with the one eyed witch was deserted, and Snape was back in his office.

They sprinted back to the statue, opened it, and heaved each other inside. After sliding down the chute, Harry wiped the map and stowed it in his bag that was waiting for them. "Handy that," Faykan commented as they dashed down the passage, "I was getting oh so very tired of scouting ahead of you all the time."

"Lies… you loved it." Harry retorted with a grin.

"Yeah, I suppose I did." Faykan said cheerily as they approached the trapdoor to Honeydukes.

Together they slipped out under the Invisibility cloak, and emerged into the sunlit streets outside of the candy shop. They found Ron and prodded him in the back to get his attention.

"It's us," Harry muttered in his ear.

"What kept you?" Ron hissed back.

"Snape," Faykan replied simply.

And together they set off up High Street.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco had just emerged from Dominic Maestro's when he saw Ron wandering up High Street alone, yet talking as if there was someone there. 'Of course,' Draco thought, 'Faykan and Harry must be under the cloak.'

Draco followed, hoping to learn how they got out of the castle without Filch or McGonagall learning of it. "Where are you?" Ron kept muttering out of the corner of his mouth. "Are you still there? This feels weird..."

"Quiet Ron or anyone will hear you talking to yourself," Draco said as he poked Ron in the back, causing him to jump.

"Draco!" he yelled, spinning around, "Don't do that!" Draco sniggered, and he could hear the other two Gryffindor boys restraining laughter from under the cloak. "So, how is it that you guys are here," he said in a conspiratorial whisper, falling in beside Ron as they continued up the street.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Faykan's voice said from thin air.

"When were back at the castle we'll explain, but not here." Harry clarified. Draco accepted that, it would be too suspicious to have them talking to seeming nothingness in the middle of a busy street.

Their first stop was the post office, which Draco felt was a waste of time personally, but Harry seemed to enjoy it, if the small sounds of awe coming out of nowhere were any indication. Afterward they tried to visit Zonko's, but it was far too packed with students for Harry or Faykan to go in with the cloak, so Ron took orders of what they wanted and purchased their items for them, wisely hanging on to them for later.

The day was fine and breezy, and none of them felt like staying indoors for long, so they walked past the Three Broomsticks and climbed a slope to visit the Shrieking Shack, the most haunted dwelling in Britain. It stood a little way above the rest of the village, and even in daylight was slightly creepy, with its boarded windows and dank overgrown garden.

"Even the Hogwarts ghosts avoid it," said Ron as they leaned on the fence, looking up at it. "I asked Nearly Headless Nick... he says he's heard a very rough crowd lives here. No one can get in. Fred and George tried, obviously, but all the entrances are sealed shut..."

Draco watched the house for several moments, reveling in the silence around them, when he spotted a dark shape looming around the side of the building. He squinted to try and make it out, but at that moment he heard voices approaching from behind them. Someone was climbing toward the house from the other side of the hill; moments later, Nott had appeared, followed closely by Crabbe and Goyle. Nott was speaking.

"...should have an owl from Father any time now. He had to go to the hearing to tell them about my arm... and how I couldn't use it for three months..."

Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.

"I really wish I could hear that great hairy moron trying to defend himself... 'There's no 'arm in 'im, 'onest' that hippogriff's as good as dead…"

Nott suddenly caught sight of Draco and Ron. His pale face split in a malevolent grin.

"Oh look!" he sneered, "it's everyone's favorite blood-traitors, Drakie and the Weasel… Honestly Malfoy, I don't understand why you bother with these people; Potter isn't special enough to warrant you spending time alone with Mudbloods and traitors."

Draco sneered back at Nott, and Ron looked like he wanted to leap at the other boy, but from behind them Harry's voice sounded in their ears, "Leave him to us..."

Draco heard a small sound like a gentle breeze, and felt something fuzzy and warm by his leg. Looking down he saw Faykan the fox pawing slowly through the snow from behind him, so that Nott wouldn't see where he came from.

"We were just discussing your friend Hagrid," Nott said to Ron. "Just trying to imagine what he's saying to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. D'you think he'll cry when they cut off his hippogriff's…"

 _SLAPT!_

Nott's head jerked forward as a huge glob of mud hit him, sending him staggering forward a step with the force of it.

"What the…?"

Ron burst out laughing, while Draco contented himself with a humorous smirk. Nott and his two goons spun stupidly on the spot, staring wildly around, trying to find whoever threw the mud.

"What was that? Who did that?"

"Very haunted up here, isn't it?" Ron stated with the air of discussing the weather.

Both Crabbe and Goyle looked spooked, while Nott was staring madly at the deserted landscape.

Icy wind started to blow, seeming from the direction of the Shrieking Shack, sweeping the boys' robes up and carrying sounds of grinding and moans. Nott's face blanched. A ghostly, echoing voice sounded around them, chilling Draco's bones and setting his teeth on edge.

" _The way is shut… It was made by those who are dead… and the dead keep it… The way is shut!_ "

"AAARGH!" Nott yelled, running back toward Hogsmeade, with Crabbe and Goyle in tow. Suddenly Nott tripped, and out of nowhere Harry's head appeared. Nott must have caught the hem of the Invisibility cloak. Nott screamed again, high and very feminine; completely unbecoming of his heritage, and sprinted back to the castle.

Harry tugged the cloak up again, but the damage was done.

"Harry!" Ron said, stumbling forward and staring hopelessly at the point where Harry had disappeared, "you'd better run for it! If Nott tells anyone… you'd better get back to the castle, quick…"

"See you later," Harry called, and Faykan the fox dashed away, ducking under the parting in the cloak that Harry opened for him, and they vanished from sight.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus Snape had just heard the most interesting story. Theodore Nott, panting and pale from the cold had come running into his office, blabbering something about Potter's head appearing near the Shrieking Shack while he was there with Weasley and Draco. While he ignored most of Nott's ramblings, it was very interesting for Severus to think that Potter had found a way around the dementors and into the village without permission. And where Potter went, Undol usually wasn't far behind.

Severus was currently striding down the third floor toward the stairs to Gryffindor Tower, just in the off chance that Nott was making up stories. Let no one say that Severus Snape didn't investigate the truth of everything, including accusations from his own house.

As he came around the corner that housed the statue of a one eyed witch where he had met Potter, Longbottom, and Undol earlier that day, he saw Potter, red faced and clearly winded, rolling on the stone floor of the corridor with a large black fox. The fox was plainly trying to lick Potter's face, and Potter was laughing hard as he attempted to protect himself. Severus raised an eyebrow at the clear oddity of the situation. The fox seemed very familiar to him, but he could not place where he had seen the creature before.

"So," he said finally, and Potter started, sitting up and turning to face him, slight embarrassment on his face for being found playing like a child with an animal.

"Mr. Nott had just been to see me with a strange story, Potter," Severus said slowly. Potter said nothing so Severus continued, as the fox poked its nose into Potter's ear, causing the boy to laugh softly and push the small creature away, "Mr. Nott claims that he was standing talking to Weasley and Mr. Malfoy by the Shrieking Shack, apparently alone, when a large amount of mud hit him in the back of the head. How do you think that could have happened?"

Severus looked and saw smeared mud on Potter's hands, but even more covering the fox's body from where the boy was handling it. Not enough evidence to actually pin the blame on the boy, but the question still was where the fox had come from and why it was familiar to Severus.

"I don't know, Professor." Potter replied, looking guilty and embarrassed, but Severus couldn't tell if it was admittance of guilt or leftover from being caught acting childish in the middle of the corridor.

Severus tried to look into Potter's mind, as he had done easily over the last two years, and was shocked to find nothing but fog. Someone had been teaching the boy Occlumency, and Severus had a good guess at whom that was.

"Mr. Nott then saw an extraordinary apparition. Can you imagine what it might have been, Potter?" he continued, looking for a weakness in the shielding around the boy's thoughts.

"No," Potter said, trying and failing to sound innocently curious.

"It was your head, Potter." Severus said, "Floating in midair."

"Maybe he'd better go to Madam Pomfrey," Potter retorted. "If he's seeing things like…"

"What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?" said Severus softly, cutting over him. "Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade."

"I know that," said Harry, straining to keep his face rigid. "It sounds like Nott's having hallucin…"

"Nott isn't having hallucinations." snarled Snape, "If your head was in Hogsmeade, so was the rest of you, as was Mr. Undol most likely, who is also not allowed to be in Hogsmeade."

Severus glanced around for a moment, wondering where the other boy might be, and felt something brush against his leg. Looking down, Severus saw the black fox rubbing its head against his leg, seeking affection from the new person but only succeeding on spreading the mud on its fur onto Severus' pant leg.

Severus took a moment to study the fox, large and black with grey markings down its back, curiously familiar markings. "Where is Mr. Undol?" Severus asked coldly.

"Probably back in Gryffindor Tower," Potter replied, "Like you told…"

"Can anyone else confirm that?" Severus said, overriding Potter again.

Potter said nothing, and Severus smiled.

"So," he said, straightening up again. "Everyone from the Minister of Magic downward has been trying to keep famous Harry Potter safe from Sirius Black. But famous Harry Potter is a law unto himself. Let the ordinary people worry about his safety! Famous Harry Potter goes where he wants to, with no thought for the consequences."

Potter glared for a moment at Severus, while the fox continued to persistently annoy his leg for attention. Severus pushed it aside with his foot while continuing to address Potter.

"Turn out your pockets…" he said suddenly

Potter hesitated, before he pulled from his robe pocket his wand, and a spare bit of old parchment…

Severus took the parchment, unfolding its many odd flaps, all blank, "and what is this?" he asked smugly.

"Spare bit of parchment," Potter said with a shrug.

Turning the parchment over, Severus eyed Potter as he withdrew his wand.

"Surely you don't need such a very old piece of parchment?" Severus said smugly, "Why don't I just, throw this away?" he added as he raised his wand.

"NO!" Potter said quickly.

Severus raised an eyebrow, "So, is this some kind of treasured gift, a letter perhaps, written in invisible ink? Or instructions to get into Hogsmeade without passing the dementors perhaps? Let me see, let me see…. Reveal your secret!" Severus said, tapping the parchment with his wand.

Nothing happened.

"Show yourself!" Severus tried again, tapping the parchment harder.

Still nothing happened. Potter looked like he was starting to hyperventilate.

"Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, commands you to yield the information you conceal!" Severus stated, swatting the parchment hard with his wand.

As though an invisible hand were writing upon it, words appeared on the smooth surface of the map.

' _Mooney presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business_.'

Severus froze. Potter stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the parchment didn't stop there. More writing was appearing beneath the first.

' _Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git_.'

Prongs! Severus clenched the parchment tightly; this was the Marauder's blasted map! More writing appeared under the previous sentences.

' _Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor_.'

Potter had closed his eyes in horror. The fox had disappeared, but Severus was watching as the final line of insults formed on the map.

' _Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball_.'

"So…" Severus said softly. "We'll see about this, follow me Potter!"

And with that Severus led the boy down to his dungeon office. Severus strode across the room in several steps, seized a fistful of glittering floo powder from a nearby jar, and threw it into the flames.

"Lupin," he called, "I want a word."

Several moments later the spinning shape appeared in the fireplace, and Lupin clambered out, brushing ashes off his shabby robes.

"You called Severus?" he said mildly.

"I certainly did," said Severus, his face contorted with fury as he strode back to his desk. "I have just asked Potter to empty his pockets. He was carrying this."

Severus pointed at the parchment, on which the words of _Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_ were still shining. An odd, closed expression appeared on Lupin's face.

"Well?" Severus insisted, forcing Lupin's hand. "This parchment is plainly full of _Dark Magic_. This is supposed to be your area of expertise, Lupin. Where do you _imagine_ Potter got such a thing?"

Lupin looked up and, by the merest half-glance in Harry's direction, warned the boy not to interrupt.

"Full of Dark Magic?" he repeated mildly. "Do you really think so, Severus? It looks to me as though it is merely a piece of parchment that insults anybody who reads it. Childish, to be sure, but surely not dangerous… I imagine Harry got it from a joke shop…"

"Indeed?" Severus interrupted. "You think a joke shop could supply him with such a thing? You don't think it more likely that he got it directly from the _manufacturers_?"

"You mean, by Mr. Wormtail or one of these people?" he said. "Harry, do you know any of these men?"

"No," said Potter quickly.

"You see Severus?" said Lupin, turning back to face him.

Suddenly, Faykan strode into the room, and casually looked from Severus' angry face to Lupin, then over to Potter, and finally settling his eyes on the map.

"Oh, there's my little project. I was wondering what you did with it, Harry," Undol said cheerfully to Potter as he approached and reached a hand to pick up the map. Severus snatched it away quickly with a scowl at Undol.

"So," Lupin said to Undol, "You are saying that you made this article, then let Harry borrow it?" Undol nodded, smiling in a way that Severus knew was meant to charm. He scowled deeper as Lupin turned to him.

"Well, that seems to clear that up! Severus, I'll take this back, shall I?" Lupin said, pulling the map from Severus' grip and tucking it inside his robes. "Harry, Faykan, come with me, I need a word about my vampire essay… excuse us Severus."

And together they all left Severus fuming silently.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry couldn't believe his luck at escaping from Snape without punishment, thanks to both Professor Lupin and Faykan's intervention. They walked together up to the entrance hall without speaking. Finally Harry turned to Lupin.

"Professor, I…"

"I don't want to hear explanations," said Lupin shortly. He glanced around the empty entrance hall and lowered his voice. "I happen to know that this map was confiscated by Mr. Filch many years ago. Yes, I know it's a map," he said. Harry was amazed, but Faykan looked as if he knew this information already. Lupin continued, "I don't want to know how it fell into your possession. I am; however, astounded that you didn't hand it in. Particularly after what happened the last time a student left information about the castle lying around. And I can't let you have it back, Harry."

Harry had expected that, and was too keen for explanations to protest.

"Why did Snape think I'd got it from the manufacturers?" he asked.

"Because...," Lupin hesitated, "because these mapmakers would have wanted to lure you out of school. They'd think it extremely entertaining."

"Do you know them?" said Faykan, smirking in a way that told Harry he already had a guess at the answer.

"We've met," Lupin said shortly. He was looking at Harry more seriously than ever before.

"Don't expect me to cover up for you again, Harry. I cannot make you take Sirius Black seriously. But I would have thought that what you have heard when the dementors draw near you would have had more of an effect on you. Your parents gave their lives to keep you alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them, wandering around with this map; did you think what might happen if Black found this? It could lead him straight to you…"

He walked away, leaving Harry feeling worse by far than he had at any point in Snape's office. Slowly, he and Faykan mounted the marble staircase. They found Ron near the One eyed witch's statue, which Harry remember with a grimace still had the Invisibility cloak inside it, but he didn't dare get it now.

Faykan explained to Ron what had happened since their hasty departure at the Shrieking Shack. "It's my fault," said Ron abruptly. "I persuaded you guys to go. Lupin's right, it was stupid, we shouldn't have done it…"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was pacing in front of the fat lady's portrait, straining to comprehend the short message from Hagrid she had just received.

 _Dear Hermione,_

 _We lost. I'm allowed to bring him back to Hogwarts. Execution date to be fixed. Beaky has enjoyed London. I won't forget all the help you gave us._

 _Hagrid_

The parchment was damp, and stained with Hagrid enormous teardrops, which had smudged the ink badly, but Hermione could still make out everything. Hermione felt horrible for Hagrid, and angry at Nott, his father, Lucius Malfoy, and the whole committee for their lack of moral dignity to make just and fair decisions in the face of corruption. It made Hermione sick with fury.

"Are you going to stand there all day or give the password?" the fat lady said impatiently. Hermione scowled at the painting, and stormed away down the hall with the patrolling security trolls.

She had made it halfway down the hall when Harry, Ron, and Faykan came around the corner, Ron breaking off speaking as they saw her coming toward them. Harry's face paled slightly at the look on her face. He must think that she told on them to Professor McGonagall for their sneaking out to Hogsmeade.

"Come to have a good gloat?" said Ron savagely as she stopped in front of them. "Or have you just been to tell on us?"

"No," Hermione retorted angrily. She tried to control her trembling lip as she looked at the letter again. "I just thought you ought to know... Hagrid lost his case. Buckbeak is going to be executed."

All three boys looked gob smacked. Clearly none of them had even remembered Hagrid's problems with the Ministry. "He sent me this," she continued, holding the letter out to Harry, who took it and read, Ron and Faykan leaning over his shoulders to see for themselves.

"They can't do this," Harry said in a small voice, "They can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous."

"Nott's father used Lucius Malfoy to frighten the committee into it," Hermione explained, wiping her own eyes. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of doddery old fools, and they were scared. There'll be an appeal though, there always is. Only I can't see any hope… nothing will have changed."

"Yeah, it will," Ron said fiercely. "You won't have to do all the work alone this time Hermione. I'll help."

Hermione felt a burst of new emotion at Ron's pronouncement, and she flung her arms around the boy, breaking down again as she hung there, sobbing uncontrollably. Finally, she recomposed herself enough to pull away from him. Ron looked slightly shaken, having completely unexpected her reaction.

"Ron, I'm so very sorry about Scabbers…" Hermione sobbed, deciding to breach the gap between them now while they had some commonality.

"Oh… well, he was old," Ron said, looking thoroughly relieved that she had let go of him. "And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now."

"Especially if you play up the waterworks a bit…" Faykan joked, and the boys laughed, but Hermione didn't. She still remembered the terrifying vision of Faykan, red eyed and violent, striking down Dumbledore and setting vicious creature loose on London, and she didn't know what to believe at the moment.

On the one hand, Faykan had never done anything to break their trust in him, and yet on the other he had no trust in Dumbledore, the greatest light wizard who ever lived, so who knew what side he was really on… it was all so confusing.

The four Gryffindors wanted nothing better than to go and talk with Hagrid immediately, but the safety measures imposed after Black's second break-in made it impossible for evening visits. Their only chance to talk with him was during their Care of Magical Creature lessons.

Hagrid was, in short, numb with shock at the verdict.

"S'all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates yeh looked up fer me, Hermione. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em..."

"There's still the appeal!" said Ron fiercely. "Don't give up yet, we're working on it!"

They were walking back up to the castle with the rest of the class. Ahead they could see Nott, who was walking with Crabbe and Goyle, and kept looking back, laughing derisively. Faykan was between them and Nott's group, talking softly to Draco, filling him in on what had transpired.

"S'no good, Ron," said Hagrid sadly as they reached the castle steps. "That Committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that..."

Hagrid turned around and hurried back toward his cabin, his face buried in his handkerchief.

"Poor Hagrid." Draco said as they made their way into the entrance hall. Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle were there, at the entrance to the dungeons, leering at them as they passed. Nott didn't take his eyes off Faykan as he commented loudly about Hagrid's troubles. Hermione almost lost control to physically hit the tall arrogant arse, but Faykan caught her shoulder and she jerked in reaction.

"Sorry." Faykan said quietly, as Harry, Ron, and Draco talked about the upcoming Quidditch finals, Harry and Draco exchanging good natured taunts and jibes. Hermione ignored Faykan, too upset with the situation to care. She was losing control, she needed time to sleep, time…

"We're due in Charms," said Ron casually. The Gryffindors then parted from their Slytherin friend and made their way up to Flitwick's classroom. Hermione was too distracted to notice the boys as she absently flicked her Time-Turner, not noticing the bright blue eyes watching her vanish back an hour.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned.**

 _Not much to mention for this chapter. a few rewording of clunky intros, but more or less grammar correction as this is a central plot relative chapter, and therefore was forced to be more closely tied to canon than what I've been striving to do. Again, the big pull away from canon really doesn't officially start till the end of 4th year, and doesn't hit full stride until year 6. until next time! ~F_


	39. Y3-C13: Finals

_Good News Everyone! you're reading this in a Professor Farnsworth voice! but in seriousness I hit a massive spike of inspiration, and got through a downright massive amount of editing for this story! (Well just say book 4 is done and leave it at that) Granted, I will likely be spot rechecking things as they come out, but we ought now have any hiccups on chapters rolling out for a long time to come! meanwhile, please enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Thirteen**

 **Finals**

"You're late, boys!" Professor Flitwick said reprovingly as Harry opened the classroom door. "Come along, quickly, wands out. We're experimenting with Cheering Charms today, we've already divided into groups…"

Harry, Ron, and Faykan hurried to a pair of desks at the back and opened their bags. Ron looked behind him.

"Where's Hermione gone?"

Harry looked around too. Hermione hadn't entered the classroom, yet Harry knew she had been right next to him when he had opened the door.

"That's weird," said Harry, staring from Ron to Faykan. "Maybe… maybe she went to the bathroom or something?"

But Hermione didn't turn up all lesson. Faykan didn't look at all surprised by her absence, but Harry was far too cheerful to care at the moment. The Cheering Charms left them all feeling very contented as they made their way down to lunch.

Hermione wasn't at lunch either. By the time they had finished their apple pie, the after-effects of the Cheering Charms were wearing off, and Harry and Ron had started to get slightly worried.

"You don't think Nott did something to her?" Ron said anxiously as they hurried upstairs toward Gryffindor Tower.

"Highly unlikely," Faykan replied, smirking to himself.

They passed the security trolls, gave the Fat Lady the password, Flibbertigibbet, and scrambled through the portrait hole into the common room.

Hermione was sitting at a table, fast asleep, her head resting on an open Arithmancy book. They went to sit down on either side of her. Harry prodded her awake.

"Wh… what?" said Hermione, waking with a start and staring wildly around. "Is it time to go? W-which lesson have we got now?"

"Divination, but it's not for another twenty minutes," said Harry. "Hermione, why didn't you come to Charms?"

"What? Oh no!" Hermione squeaked. "I forgot to go to Charms!"

"But how could you forget?" said Harry. "You were with us till we were right outside the classroom!"

"I don't believe it!" Hermione wailed. "Was Professor Flitwick angry? Oh, it was Nott, I was thinking about him and I lost track of things!"

"You know what, Hermione?" said Ron, looking down at the enormous Arithmancy book Hermione had been using as a pillow. "I reckon you're cracking up. You're trying to do too much."

"No, I'm not!" said Hermione, brushing her hair out of her eyes and staring hopelessly around for her bag. "I just made a mistake, that's all! I'd better go and see Professor Flitwick and say sorry... I'll see you in Divination!"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The Easter holidays were a nightmare. The third years had never had so much homework! Hermione had so much work from all her classes that she had barricaded herself in the Room of Requirement and only came out to catch a few hours sleep nightly.

The only times that Draco even saw her was while he was training with Harry, Ron, and Faykan, and even then she only participated occasionally, the spent the rest of the time sheltered behind her books as she scratched away at essay after essay.

Harry was still having difficulty with the intensity of his wandless magic, due to the mysterious block on him, and Faykan had made no progress in removing it. According to Faykan, the spell blocking Harry's magic had become damaged somehow, and would be impossible to remove without inflicting massive trauma to Harry. Naturally, Faykan wasn't willing to risk permanently harming him to free Harry's magic.

Therefore they had shifted their lessons to focus more on those things that Harry could perform equally with Draco, Ron, and Hermione. Faykan had commissioned them all to continue practicing their wandless magic on their own, as it was important for their magical development.

They were currently attempting to cast a modified version of the shield spell, molding it to make a dome around them to protect them from all angles. Faykan had told them that this spell was the simplest of all wards. Draco and Ron stood at one end of the room, struggling to maintain the spell while Faykan threw spells at them, gradually increasing the difficulty to test the strength of their shield wards.

Harry would have joined them, but Faykan said that Harry had had Quidditch practice, again and would be missing. Draco had also suffered through increased practices as the final match came closer, but admitted that the Gryffindor captain, Wood, was slightly overzealous, more so now that Gryffindor was only two hundred points away from winning the Quidditch Cup for the first time in years.

" _Protego Totus_ ," Ron muttered, spinning his wand in an arc and refreshing his portion of his and Draco's joined shield ward. They had been working on withstanding Faykan's attacks for almost an hour, and together they had struggled under the rain of blows that their trainer had rained on them. Faykan had been near-ruthless, throwing everything from stunners to large shards of transfigured ice at their shield. Both Ron and Draco were panting, sweat pouring from their faces, but their shield had held under the punishment.

"Ready?" Faykan asked them again, signaling that he was about to launch another barrage. Draco recast the spell, reinforcing the left half-dome of the shield.

" _Orbis incendia_!" Faykan cried, slashing his wand outward, and a large sphere of flame launched itself from the end, sailed across the room, and exploded upon the dual shields. Draco could feel the heat as the fire splashed around them, but their barrier held strong, preventing even a single spark from singing either boy.

As the fire burned itself out, Draco could hear the sound of polite clapping from the far side of the room. Faykan was applauding their teamwork, beaming as Ron and Draco lowered their shield and collapsed into chairs near Hermione, pulling glasses of pumpkin juice toward them.

"Excellent work; really, well done." Faykan said cheerfully as he joined them, settling himself down and pulling towards him a small tray of food provided by the kitchen. Ron pulled a pile of enormously thick books out of his bag, all with titles relating to Hippogriffs, and began to thumb through one. Ron had taken over the responsibilities of Buckbeak's appeal for Hermione, whom Draco noted was very pleased to be on speaking terms with Ron again.

In fact, the only person Draco noticed that Hermione was not keen about being around was Faykan. He had seen her watching the boy as he helped Harry or Ron with their homework or trained with them, as if she was waiting for him to do… something.

It was very disconcerting to Draco, but he knew better than to try and bring it up with either, as Faykan would simply brush it off and Hermione would just deny it, or worse, hex him. Hermione had been very touchy lately ever since Hagrid lost the Buckbeak case.

According to Harry, Ron, and Faykan, Hermione had lost complete control in Divination and went off on Professor Trelawney, storming out of her classroom and dropping the class after the fraudulent Professor had 'foreseen' Harry's untimely death for the hundredth time this year. Draco was tugged out of his thoughts by Harry arriving in the Room, and Faykan declaring their break over and to start working on trying to ward a small area of the room with a permanent shielding charm.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Never, in anyone's memory, had a Quidditch match approached in such a highly charged atmosphere. By the time the Easter holidays were over, tension between the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams and their Houses was at the breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which a Gryffindor fourth year and a Slytherin sixth year ended up in the hospital wing with leeks sprouting out of their ears.

Severus found these petty disputes highly irritating, as they caused him to have to play the role of 'mediator,' which mainly involved liberal amounts of point deduction and detention toward both houses, although the Gryffindor punishments tended to be more public and embarrassing.

Severus was just returning to his offices after dealing with a group of fighting teens when he heard the sounds of scuffling and muted voices in an unused classroom. Hoping that it was not another group of students trying to hex each other, Severus disillusioned himself, and crept into the room through the partially opened door.

Theodore Nott was dragging another student deeper into the classroom, but Severus couldn't tell who the smaller body was yet. Nott waved his wand at the door, which closed and locked itself with a squelching sound, and Severus moved closer to try and see what the boy was up too.

"I didn't want this to happen, but I couldn't find a way to talk to you alone." Nott was mumbling to the petrified student below him. He rummaged through other person's robes until he pulled out his victim's wand, pocketing it before turning the body over.

It was Undol.

The smaller boy was scowling up at Nott as the Slytherin bent over him again; talking into the boy's ear so he could not miss what was said. Severus cast the tiny listening charm that he used often in the Great Hall. "I'm going to release you from the body bind Undol; I just wanted to talk to you without Potter or Weasley around." Nott was saying.

The boy waved his wand again and Undol's body relaxed, allowing him to slowly get to his feet. Nott smiled, watching as Undol moved away from him, positioning his back against the far wall and scowling back. "You wanted to talk, so talk Nott; and I would appreciate you lowering your wand." He added, noting that it was still pointed at him.

Nott did so, his face still showing how much he was enjoying having both his and Undol wands in his possession. He took a few tentative steps toward Undol, continuing to watch him with an almost feral glint in his eye, and finally cleared his throat, "Why do you hate me?" he asked in a quiet, calm voice

Undol raised his eyebrows in mock surprise, "You mean besides the fact that you're a jealous, pompous, arse?" he sneered back. "Or the fact that you are trying to get Hagrid fired, Harry expelled, and Buckbeak killed?"

"Ha ha," Nott laughed back lamely, but stopped abruptly, "You know what I mean… I can see the pure hatred in your eyes." he took another step toward Undol; they were nearly nose to nose, Nott tilting his neck to look down at Undol. Severus saw that the shorter boy was shifting uncomfortably at their closeness.

Nott lowered his voice but Severus had no trouble hearing his words, "Why, why do you reject me? We're both purebloods… cunning, powerful, and influential. Yet you allow your potential to be wasted, first by commanding the Sorting Hat to place you in an inferior house, and then by wasting your affection on one who does not even realize it."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Undol replied, squirming slightly, trying to find a way out. Nott place his hands against the wall on either side of Undol, preventing any attempt at escape and continued talking, and ignoring Undol's protests. "I've seen your power from the first day at Hogwarts, blazing around you like living fire. You hide it remarkably well, but not well enough. Surely you know that your feelings won't be returned in the way you desire? But…" Nott lowered one hand to stroke Undol's face, causing the smaller boy to flinch away, but he could not evade Nott with how close together they were.

Tilting Undol's chin up to make the smaller boy look at him, Nott continued, "But, I would give you all you deserve: affection, care, notice, even… love. But you refuse me, why? I would do so much for you, even let the hippogriff live. I could do it, one letter to my father and the beast would go free. If…"

Undol's eyes were wide as Nott put his free arm around Undol's waist, pulling them flush against each other. "If?" Undol whispered, and Severus could hear a note of fear in his voice.

"If, you give up your crush on _him_ , and be with me instead, like you should have from the beginning," Nott whispered, leaning forward and running the tip of his nose along Undol's jaw, causing him to shudder. "Please," Undol asked in a small voice, "Please, stop… I can't."

"And again I ask, why? He'll never give you what you want from him, but I would. Just let me prove it to you…" and Nott gripped the shorter boy's face to keep him still, and pressed his lips to Undol's.

Undol shuddered and tried to turn his head away, but Nott's grip on him only tightened. The taller boy pressed himself upon Undol, trapping his body between Nott's and the wall, and Nott ran a hand down the side of Undol's torso, trying to relax the boy. Slowly, ever so slowly, Undol did, encircling his arms around Nott's lean frame, but Severus saw his hands reaching for the pocket of Nott's robes. Nott however, clearly misunderstood Undol's motions for acceptance, and maneuvered himself to brush Undol's groin with himself.

The reaction was immediate. Undol cried out, twisted out of Nott's grasp, and brought one leg up violently, connecting directly between Nott's legs. The tall Slytherin crumpled to the floor, writhing in pain as Undol scowled down at him, his wand back in his hand and his eyes narrowed in revulsion. "I told you before Nott, time and again. I don't care about blood, or power, or anything that you could hope to offer me. Your kind disgust me, and I would rather die than have a lifetime of your version of _happiness_. Never touch me again. Don't speak to me, or to anyone else, of this ever."

And he stormed off to the door, only turning back after he removed the locking charms, "Your obsession frightens me Theodore. It is only a shadow and a dream that you desire in me. Even if there was anything possible between us, I could not give you what you expect. I am truly sorry for you. Find someone who shares your views, perhaps a nice _girl_ … or Parkinson for that matter." With that, Faykan disappeared into the corridor, and out of sight.

Nott continued to whimper and moan on the floor for several minutes, but Severus didn't stay. They boy got what he deserved for trying to force himself upon someone as capable as Undol. The last thing he heard before ending the eavesdropping spell were Nott's only coherent words since Undol's knee connected with his genitals. "I will not give you up Faykan Undol… Potter will never love you in return, so you will be mine, one way or another."

Severus stopped dead when he heard this. Undol was infatuated with Potter? There was no possibility that it was true love, thirteen-year-olds had no understanding of the concept. However… Severus had been in love from a far younger age. He shook himself. No! This was not the time or place to think of Lily Potter. Albus had to be filled in on not only the events of the last few minutes, but of the presumptions that Mr. Nott had just placed so delicately into their hands. Potter would be protected, even if they had to drag the boy kicking and screaming to his destiny. Albus' mantra rang through Severus' mind " _For the greater good_ …"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus watched the final Quidditch match of the season with a mild expression. He had no doubts that Gryffindor would win this season, as the combination of Harry's skill, superior quality broom, and excellent workings with the rest of the team pushed them far ahead of the abilities of the Slytherins.

This confidence allowed the Headmaster to focus on more important matters, such as the ever interesting dilemma of Mr. Faykan Undol. Severus had recently informed Albus about the interesting encounter between Mr. Undol and Theodore Nott of Slytherin.

Apparently the Slytherin boy was convinced that young Faykan had a boyhood crush on Harry, which, in Albus' humble opinion, wasn't hard to imagine, who wouldn't wish to be with the 'Boy-Who-Lived.' It also was the perfect cover for Mr. Undol to accomplish whatever sinister plans he had to tear Harry from Albus' designs.

Yes, an interesting development, but not completely important. It might be of use to throw off the boy, show him a vision of Harry in pain to shake him up, and lower his guard for a well-timed Legilimens or dosage of Veritaserum. No, what was far more interesting was Theodore's seeming obsession with Faykan's power. Albus knew for a fact that what the young Nott was feeling for Mr. Undol was not love, but simply a mixture of compulsion and ideal-based attraction, much like what Albus himself had felt for Gellert back when they were youths.

The attraction was probably magnified by Nott's ability to physically see powerful magical auras, which could lead him to attempt very foolish things simple to be with the other boy. Albus had instructed Severus not to interfere with any future interaction between Faykan and Theodore, but to simple set someone to watch them, some third year Ravenclaws would love the chance to study someone with that much magical potential without being seen. Severus had suggested this, and Albus agreed, even choosing the students to be taught the Lynx Eye spell for their 'extra assignment' of studying Mr. Undol.

So absorbed in his train of thought was Albus that he almost didn't notice Harry's spectacular capture of the Snitch, winning both the match and the Cup for Gryffindor. The crowds of cheering students from all houses but Slytherin were carrying the Gryffindor team towards where Albus sat, and Severus pressed the Quidditch Cup into his hands. Albus stood, watching with an amused smile as Harry and his friends bobbed their way toward him, and Oliver Wood gratefully accepted the trophy from Albus, passing it to Harry, trying to hide his sobbing.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry's euphoria at finally winning the Quidditch Cup lasted at least a week. Even the weather seemed to be celebrating; as June approached, the days became cloudless and sultry, and all anybody felt like doing was strolling onto the grounds and flopping down on the grass with several pints of iced pumpkin juice, perhaps playing a casual game of Gobstones or watching the giant squid propel itself dreamily across the surface of the lake.

But they couldn't. Exams were nearly upon them, and instead of lazing around outside, the students were forced to remain inside the castle trying to bully their brains into concentrating while enticing wafts of summer air drifted in through the windows. Harry, Ron, Draco, Hermione, and Faykan were spending as much free time in the Room of Requirement as possible.

Faykan had asked the room to provide a pair of windows overlooking the ground to allow a breeze in, as the weather was starting to become comfortably warm, but it led to distractions for everyone. The grounds just seemed so inviting instead of pouring over books or trying to change small chairs into wooden sculptures. Faykan had started showing them combat uses for Transfiguration, such as changing thrown objects into deadly projectiles, up to shifting your opponent into a harmless animal. Faykan didn't expect any of them to be able to do the more advanced things for a long time, but he felt that it would be beneficial for them to see the possibilities.

Harry, Ron, and Draco had given up asking Hermione how she was managing to attend several classes at once, but they couldn't restrain themselves when they saw the exam schedule she had drawn up for herself. Sure enough, she had all her exams times double booked the entire week. Ron was currently trying to worm the truth out of Hermione, to no avail, just as Hedwig fluttered into the Room, and settled on Harry's chair, a note clutched in her beak.

"It's from Hagrid," said Harry, ripping the note open. "Buckbeak's appeal… it's set for the sixth."

"That's the day we finish our exams," said Hermione, looking around her double tables for her Arithmancy book.

"And they're coming up here to do it," said Harry, still reading from the letter. "Someone from the Ministry and… and an executioner."

Everyone looked up from their various activities at Harry's words.

"They're bringing the executioner to the appeal!" Hermione said, startled, "but that sounds as though they've already decided!"

"But they can't have!" Ron howled. "I've spent ages reading up on stuff for Hagrid; they can't just ignore it all!"

"Ignoring things is what the Ministry is best at, unfortunately." Faykan said glumly.

"Especially when someone else's gold is clinking in their pockets…" Draco added angrily.

Harry had the horrible feeling, and was sure that everyone else agreed that the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures had had its mind made up for it by Mr. Nott and Mr. Malfoy. Theodore, who had been noticeably subdued ever since the Gryffindor's triumph in the Quidditch final, seemed to regain some of his old swagger over the next few days. From sneering comments at Harry and Faykan, to pointed glares in classrooms, it could be gleaned that Nott was certain that Buckbeak was going to be killed, and he seemed rather pleased about it.

And the worst thing of all was that they had no time or opportunity to go and see Hagrid, because the security measures had not been lifted, and Harry didn't dare go retrieve his Invisibility Cloak from below the one eyed witch.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Exam week began with an unnatural hush falling over the castle. The third years emerged after three hours of Transfiguration limp and ashen-faced, many comparing results and bemoaning the difficulty of the tasks they had been set, the hardest of which was turning a teapot into a tortoise. Thankfully, because of Faykan's training them all in Transfiguration that year, Hermione had done extremely well. Professor McGonagall's only complaint had been that she may have confused a turtle with a tortoise, but had given her full marks regardless.

After their hasty lunch, the four Gryffindors headed back up for their Charms exam. Hermione's worries were confirmed; Professor Flitwick indeed tested them all on Cheering Charms. Harry slightly overdid his on Faykan, because of the overexcitement he had felt from his friend's spell, and it caused Faykan to burst into fits of laughter, and Professor Flitwick excused them as to not disrupt the rest of the students that had not yet been tested. Faykan had had to sling his arm around Harry for support and stumbled down the stairs to dinner in drunken giddiness.

Dinner was just as quick as lunch, as the students had to dash back to the common rooms to study for Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, and Astronomy for the next day's exams.

Hagrid presided over the Care of Magical Creature exam the following morning with a very preoccupied air; his heart didn't seem to be in it at all. He had provided a large tub of fresh flobberworms for the class, and told them that to pass the test; their flobberworm had to be alive at the end of one hour. As flobberworms flourished best if left alone, it was the easiest exam anyone had ever taken, and also gave the four Gryffindors their opportunity at last to talk to Hagrid.

"Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed," Hagrid told them, bending low on the pretense of checking that Harry's flobberworm was still alive. "Bin cooped up too long. But still... we'll know day after tomorrow… one way or the other…"

They had Potions that afternoon, which was an unqualified disaster. Try as Harry might, he hadn't gotten his Confusing Concoction to thicken, and Snape, standing watch with an air of vindictive pleasure around them all, scribbled something that looked suspiciously like a zero onto his notes before moving away to check Faykan's. Hermione signed, sometimes Snape was just savagely cruel to Harry, Ron, and especially Faykan.

Then came Astronomy at midnight, up on the tallest tower; History of Magic on Wednesday morning, in which Faykan could be heard banging his head softly on his desk every few minutes, clearly disgusted with the questions that he had no answers to. Hermione didn't understand why Faykan couldn't be bothered to look in any history book, but he seemed to shun them with intense dislike. Wednesday afternoon meant Herbology, in the greenhouses under a baking-hot sun; then back to the common room once more, with sun burnt necks, thinking longingly of this time next day when it would all be over.

Their second to last exam, on Thursday morning, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin had compiled the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken; a sort of obstacle course outside in the sun, where they had to wade across a deep paddling pool containing a grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish their way across a patch of marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a new boggart.

Hermione was behind Faykan as they made their way through the course. Ron was ahead of him with Harry in the lead. Professor Lupin muttered something to Harry as he emerged from the trunk at the very end, which caused Harry to smile widely. Harry hung around to watch the rest of them finish. Ron did very well until he reached the hinkypunk, which successfully confused him into sinking waist-high into the quagmire. Faykan did everything perfectly, and emerged from the trunk rather pale and rubbing his chest in pain. Professor Lupin handed him a small piece of chocolate and a small vial of pain relief potion.

And it was finally Hermione's turn. She did perfectly fine until she reached the trunk. She hesitated slightly, wondering what her greatest fear could possibly be. Inhaling sharply, she climbed inside.

" _Lumos_ ," she muttered, lighting her wand.

A human shaped form stepped out of the shadows in the opposite corner of the trunk. The shoulder length black hair and gleaming red eyes caused Hermione to back up in horror. Faykan, the same Faykan from her dark vision, grinned maliciously at her fear. The golden locket bounced on his chest as he drew out the black ebony wand from his robes, and pointed it at her. Hermione scratched and clawed for the trunk latch as Faykan opened his mouth, " _Avada_ …" the door burst open and she ran, screaming her head off.

"Hermione!" said Lupin, startled. "What's the matter?"

Hermione had to think fast, she couldn't just tell the truth, "P-P-Professor McGonagall!" she gasped, pointing into the trunk, and pulling the first thought out of her mind she could find. "Sh-she said I'd failed everything!"

Professor Lupin, Harry, Ron, and Faykan took almost an hour to calm her down; it was hard when she thought that the evil Faykan would step out of the trunk any moment and start to attack them all.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

When at last Hermione regained a grip on herself, she, Harry, Ron, and Faykan made their way back to the castle. Ron was still inclined to laugh at Hermione's boggart, but Faykan was keen to keep him distracted from going on about it.

"Hello there, Harry!" came a voice from the top of the stairs in front of the castle. It was Cornelius Fudge, sweating slightly in his pinstriped cloak, "Just had an exam, I expect? Nearly finished?"

"Yes." replied Harry cautiously. Faykan just eyed the Minister, while Ron and Hermione hovered awkwardly in the background, them not being on speaking terms with him.

"Lovely day," Fudge continued, casting an eye over to the lake, "Pity… pity…"

He sighed deeply and looked down at the four Gryffindors.

"I'm here on an unpleasant mission, Harry. The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures required a witness to the execution of a mad hippogriff. As I needed to visit Hogwarts to check on the Black situation, I was asked to step in."

"So, that means that the appeal is going to be ignored does it?" Faykan said, putting a hand on Ron, who had stepped forward to interrupt.

"No, no, it's scheduled for this afternoon," said Fudge, looking curiously at Faykan, "Have we met before young man?"

"Yes, at the Malfoy Yuletide party, I was with Harry when you introduced him to Madam Umbridge…"

"Oh yes, that was a lovely party wasn't it?" Fudge said, smiling slightly. Just then two wizards came through the castle doors behind Fudge. One was so ancient he appeared to be withering before their very eyes; the other was tall and strapping, with a thin back mustache. Harry gathered that they were representatives of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, because the very old wizard squinted toward Hagrid's cabin and said in a feeble voice, "Dear, dear, I'm getting too old for this... Two o'clock, isn't it, Fudge?"

The black-mustached man was fingering something in his belt; Harry looked and saw that he was running one broad thumb along the blade of a shining axe. Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione nudged him hard in the ribs and jerked her head toward the entrance hall.

"Why'd you stop me?" said Ron angrily as they entered the Great Hall for lunch. "Did you see them? They've even got the axe ready! This isn't justice!"

"Ron, your dad works for the Ministry, you can't go saying things like that to his boss!" said Hermione, but she too looked very upset. "As long as Hagrid keeps his head this time, and argues his case properly, they can't possibly execute Buckbeak..."

But Harry could tell Hermione didn't really believe what she was saying.

Harry, Faykan, and Ron's last exam was Divination; Hermione's, Muggle Studies. They walked up the marble staircase together; Hermione left them on the first floor and the three boys proceeded all the way up to the seventh, where many of their class were sitting on the spiral staircase to Professor Trelawney's classroom, trying to cram in a bit of last-minute studying.

"She's seeing us all separately," Neville informed them as they went to sit down next to him. He had his copy of ' _Unfogging the Future_ ' open on his lap at the pages devoted to crystal gazing. "Have either of you ever seen anything in a crystal ball?" he asked them unhappily.

"Nope," said Ron in an offhand voice. He kept checking his watch; Harry knew that he was counting down the time until Buckbeak's appeal started. The line of people outside the classroom shortened very slowly. As each person climbed back down the silver ladder, the rest of the class hissed, "What did she ask? Was it okay?" But they all refused to say. Ron grimaced when his name was called, and returned twenty minutes later shaking his head sadly. Faykan had a small smile on his face as he was called. Harry knew it was because Trelawney thought him a genius at Divination, and was likely to accept anything he told her as true predictions.

Finally, it was Harry's turn. The tower room was hotter than ever before; the curtains were closed, the fire was alight, and the usual sickly scent made Harry cough as he stumbled through the clutter of chairs and table to where Professor Trelawney sat waiting for him before a large crystal ball.

"Good day, my dear," she said softly. "If you would kindly gaze into the Orb... Take your time, now... then tell me what you see within it..."

Harry bent over the crystal ball and stared, stared as hard as he could, willing it to show him something other than swirling white fog, but nothing happened.

"Well?" Professor Trelawney prompted delicately. "What do you see?" The heat was overpowering and his nostrils were stinging with the perfumed smoke wafting from the fire beside them. He thought of what Faykan had done while teaching him and his friends Occlumency, and decided that it was worth a try. He sighed, clearing his mind, but to no avail. So he just made some stuff up about seeing a hippogriff, but Trelawney didn't seem pleased about it. He finally got up to leave, but then a loud, harsh voice spoke behind him.

" _It will happen tonight_."

Harry wheeled around. Professor Trelawney had gone rigid in her armchair; her eyes were unfocused and her mouth sagging.

"S-sorry?" said Harry.

But Professor Trelawney didn't seem to hear him. Her eyes started to roll. Harry sat there in a panic. She looked as though she was about to have some sort of seizure. He hesitated, thinking of running to the hospital wing, and then Professor Trelawney spoke again, in the same harsh voice, quite unlike her own:

" _The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight… The servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight… before midnight… the servant… will set out… to rejoin… his master_ …"

Professor Trelawney's head fell forward onto her chest. She made a grunting sort of noise. Harry sat there, staring at her. Then, quite suddenly, Professor Trelawney's head snapped up again.

"I'm so sorry, dear boy," she said dreamily, "the heat of the day, you know... I drifted off for a moment..."

Harry sat there, staring at her.

"Is there anything wrong, my dear?"

"No… nothing…" Harry replied slowly, and left the room, dashing back to Gryffindor Tower.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You have been Warned!**

 _So yes, I am proceeding through book 5's content for the edits, and the reasoning that I hit such a massive spike of inspiration is that I am finally putting back in a subplot that I had touched but mostly ignored the initial runthrough. This story was meant to be a triple crossover initially: LotR, Harry Potter, and The Dark is Rising. because I now have the time to make sure that everything weaves in nicely, I can at last flush out those hints and tidbits that existed in book five, and make an entire subplot that explores something about the time between the end of LotR and the beginning of HP, which is to say the events of The Dark is Rising._

 _ _if you have never heard of or read this sequence of five books, I HIGHLY recommend it, especially if you love HP or LotR. Susan Cooper is very much in the same realm of brilliance in her authorship, and I cannot express how much I love her work. For those who have read the sequence, look out for hints and breadcrumbs in book four, which we ought to arrive at in short order as book 3 starts to wrap up. Great things are happening, and I am very excited to see what people make of the new content that is to come.__

 _ _ _ _As for the current chapter, it was a plot heavy one that kicks Dumbledore into high gear regarding Faykan, and first began his consideration of killing the boy, although in the attempt to downplay Dumbledore as a villain I have softened some of his language in that regard, and will continue to do. I feel that Albus came off too strongly decided before, and am trying to make it more of a steady buildup rather than just a zero to twenty flip.____

 _ _ _ _the section with Nott is something that falls into another original concept for the fanfiction that I inevitably cut and modified... at the very outset, this was going to be a slash fanfic with Harry and Faykan, but the further I got into the story, the less I felt it was realistic or practical, so I ended up axing that romantic undertone and changed their relationship to what true love between straight men would be: brotherly, comradery, brushing particularly close to potentially romantic, but completely platonic in its core. this is hinted at by Hermione's constant overview of the situation and her assumptions. there may be a bit of my personal rhetoric beliefs there than guys should be allowed to be close friends without people assuming they're gay, but I hope that it was subtle enough to not be too overbearing.____

 _ _ _ _still, we shall see how well the subplot goes this time around, although I think it might have been a bit bumpy from time to time as I tried to correct course after the initial draft. it was also something of an attempt to make Theo Nott more of his own villain and less of a canon Draco clone. So, yeah, that's the mainstay of this chapter! super excited for the future, and hope to hear from you all with feedback about the changes and what you think. until next time everyone!____

 _ _ _ _~F____


	40. Y3-C14: Treachery

_Apologies for the slight tardiness of the chapter, got caught up with getting food after class... college life... anyway, happily here to present the next chapter, and to cheer for all the chapters that I got edited in my burst of inspiration... all the way into book six now! hurray! Thx to the anon review that reminded me before I got started with other things! Enjoy ~F_

 **Chapter Fourteen**

 **Treachery**

Draco sat in the Slytherin common room, basking in the fact that all his exams were finished, when he overheard Theodore Nott storming out of their dormitory with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.

Nott was gloating loudly about how Buckbeak was going to be killed soon, and boasting that he was asking his father if he could donate the beast's head to the Gryffindor common room's décor. The two half-trolls he had as friends chuckled at that, and together they left the common room, heading for Merlin-knew-where.

Draco shook his head. Nott was becoming a huge pain, constantly following around after Harry and Faykan, mocking and antagonizing them, especially Faykan. Why the other Slytherin had such a fixation with Fay, Draco did not know.

Draco sighed, rising and going to where Nott had come from. He was exhausted, and had been waiting for Nott to leave so he could lie down in peace. The third year Slytherin dormitory had five beds arranged around the rectangular room, each giving them their own small cubby of space, although with Nott's ego there was never enough space.

Draco lay down on his four-poster and sighed into his pillow in delight. His back straightened, and several distinct popping sounds signaled the realigning of his spine. There was a small cough from the other side of the room. Draco looked up from his pillow to meet the eyes of Blaise Zabini. The Italian boy was sitting against his headboard, reading from a Quidditch magazine.

"What?" Draco asked, slightly annoyed. Blaise was rather quiet, but seemed to think himself better than everyone, including other purebloods.

Zabini raised his eyebrows as he looked over at Draco, "Nothing Malfoy, just enjoying the lowered temperature since Nott left the room."

Draco snorted, "Yeah, he is rather insufferable these days."

Blaise smiled as he returned to his magazine. Draco closed his eyes, ready to drift off, but Blaise spoke again, "So, what is with Undol?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Draco said sleepily, rolling back to face the other boy.

"I mean, he was dancing and talking with my mother at your parents Yule party, and has been exchanging letters with her every few months since then, but she won't tell me anything about it when I ask her. I wanted to know if you knew anything related."

This time it was Draco's turn to raise his eyebrows. "I had no idea that Faykan had any more contact with anyone from that party, he's a rather a private person to be truthful…" he answered honestly.

"Don't you find it odd, that you know very little about such a close friend?" Zabini asked

Draco found it very odd to tell the truth, but he kept silent as he lay his head down to try and sleep.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione looked up from the fireplace as Harry burst into the common room, red faced and rather winded. Both Ron and Faykan turned from reading the note they had just received from Hagrid. Hermione had already seen it and was shocked at the news.

' _Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset. Nothing you can do. Don't come down. I don't want you to see it._

 _Hagrid_ '

"Professor Trelawney," Harry panted, "just told me…"

But he stopped abruptly at the sight of their faces.

"Buckbeak lost," said Ron weakly. "Hagrid's just sent this."

He held the note out for Harry to read. Scanning it quickly, his red face suddenly paled dramatically.

"We've got to go," Harry said at once. "He can't just sit there on his own, waiting for the executioner!"

"Sunset, though," said Ron, who was staring out the window in a glazed sort of way. "We'd never be allowed... especially you, Harry..."

Harry sank his head into his hands, clearly thinking.

"If we only had the Invisibility Cloak..."

"Where is it?" Hermione said quickly, a plan formulating in her mind. Harry explained about the one eyed witch statue on the third floor, and the methods of opening it, and how he had left the cloak in the passageway beneath it.

"… if Snape sees me or Faykan anywhere near there again, We're sure to be in serious trouble," he finished.

"True," Hermione said, grinning as she stood. "If he sees either of _you_ … How do you open the witch's hump again?"

"You tap it with a wand and say ' _Dissendium_ ,'" Faykan replied, "But…"

Hermione didn't wait; she bolted to the portrait hole and down to the statue to retrieve the cloak for them. She returned fifteen minutes later, the cloak folded carefully under her robes. Harry and Ron's jaws dropped as she revealed it. Faykan, standing behind them, smiled widely at her.

"Hermione, I don't know what has gotten into you lately!" Ron said astounded.

Hermione blushed, flattered at his praise.

They went down to dinner with everybody else, but did not return to Gryffindor Tower afterward. Harry had the cloak hidden down the front of his robes; he had to keep his arms folded to hide the lump. They skulked in an empty chamber off the entrance hall, listening, until they were sure it was deserted. They heard a last pair of people hurrying across the hall and a door slamming. Hermione poked her head around the door.

"Okay," she whispered, "no one there… cloak on."

Walking very close together so that nobody would see them, they crossed the hall on tiptoe beneath the cloak, and then walked down the stone front steps into the grounds.

The sun was already sinking behind the Forbidden Forest, gilding the top branches of the trees. Faykan had changed into his fox form to ease up room beneath the cloak, and he trotted ahead of them, his tongue lolling slightly out of his mouth as he sniffed around, acting like a normal animal for the sake of anyone who might be watching from windows.

However, before they made it across the grounds, Faykan's ears perked sideways and he turned, looking into the forest near the cabin as they approached. Before any of them knew what was going on, Faykan bolted into the trees and disappeared.

"What's with him?" Ron asked, dumbfounded.

"Must have heard or smelt something." Hermione said, confused. Faykan usually wouldn't have left them like in a situation like this.

"He must have a good reason, comm'on… Hagrid," Harry said, urging them forward to the door.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

They reached Hagrid's cabin and knocked. He was a minute in answering, and when he did, he looked all around for his visitor, pale-faced and trembling.

"It's us," Harry hissed. "We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off."

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered, but he stood back, and they stepped inside. Hagrid shut the door quickly and Harry pulled off the cloak.

Hagrid was not crying, nor did he throw himself upon their necks. He looked like a man who did not know where he was or what to do. This helplessness was worse to watch than tears.

"Wan' some tea?" he said. His great hands were shaking as he reached for the kettle.

"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" said Hermione hesitantly.

"I… I took him outside," said Hagrid, spilling milk all over the table as he filled up the jug. "He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an', an' smell fresh air… before…"

Hagrid's hand trembled so violently that the milk jug slipped from his grasp and shattered all over the floor.

"I'll do it, Hagrid," said Hermione quickly, hurrying over and starting to clean up the mess.

"There's another one in the cupboard," Hagrid said, sitting down and wiping his forehead on his sleeve. Harry glanced at Ron, who looked back hopelessly.

"Isn't there anything anyone can do, Hagrid?" Harry asked fiercely, sitting down next to him. "Dumbledore…"

"He's tried," said Hagrid. "He's got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's all right, but they're scared... Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like... threatened 'em, I expect... an' the executioner, Macnair, he's an old pal o' Malfoy and Nott... but it'll be quick an' clean... an' I'll be beside 'im... "

Hagrid swallowed. His eyes were darting all over the cabin as though looking for some shred of hope or comfort.

"Dumbledore's gonna come down while it… while it happens. Wrote me this mornin'. Said he wants ter… ter be with me. Great man, Dumbledore..."

Hermione, who had been rummaging in Hagrid's cupboard for another milk jug, let out a small, quickly stifled sob. She straightened up with the new jug in her hands, fighting back tears.

"We'll stay with you too, Hagrid," she began, but Hagrid shook his shaggy head.

"Yeh're ter go back up ter the castle. I told yeh, I don' wan' yeh watchin'. An' yeh shouldn' be down here anyway... If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry, yeh'll be in big trouble."

Silent tears were now streaming down Hermione's face, but she hid them from Hagrid, bustling around making tea. Then, as she picked up the milk bottle to pour some into the jug, she let out a shriek.

"Ron, I don't believe it… it's Scabbers!"

Ron gaped at her. "What are you talking about?"

Hermione carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. With a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back inside, Scabbers the rat came sliding out onto the table.

"Scabbers!" said Ron blankly. "Scabbers, what are you doing here?"

He grabbed the struggling rat and held him up to the light. Scabbers looked dreadful. He was thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he writhed in Ron's hands as though desperate to free himself

"It's okay, Scabbers!" said Ron. "No cats! There's nothing here to hurt you!"

Hagrid suddenly stood up, his eyes fixed on the window. His normally ruddy face had gone the color of parchment.

"They're comin'..."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione whipped around. A group of men was walking own the distant castle steps. In front was Albus Dumbledore, his silver beard gleaming in the dying sun. Next to him trotted Cornelius Fudge. Behind them came the feeble old Committee member and the executioner, Macnair.

"Yeh gotta go," said Hagrid. Every inch of him was trembling. "They mustn' find yeh here... Go now..."

Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket and Hermione picked up the cloak. "I'll let yeh out the back way," said Hagrid.

They followed him to the door into his back garden. Harry felt strangely unreal, and even more so when he saw Buckbeak a few yards away, tethered to a tree behind Hagrid's Pumpkin patch. Buckbeak seemed to know something was happening. He turned his sharp head from side to side and pawed the ground nervously.

"It's okay, Beaky," said Hagrid softly. "It's okay..." He turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Go on," he said. "Get goin'."

They had no choice. As Hermione threw the cloak over Harry and Ron, they heard voices at the front of the cabin. Hagrid looked at the place where they had just vanished from sight.

"Go quick," he said hoarsely. "Don' listen..."

And he strode back into his cabin as someone knocked at the front door.

Slowly, in a kind of horrified trance, Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off silently around Hagrid's house. As they reached the other side, the front door closed with a sharp snap.

"Please, let's hurry," Hermione whispered. "I can't stand it, I can't bear it..."

They started up the sloping lawn toward the castle. The sun was sinking fast now; the sky had turned to a clear, purple-tinged grey, but to the west there was a ruby red glow.

Ron stopped dead. Hermione tugged on him to get them moving again, but Ron complained that Scabbers wouldn't stop squirming in his grasp. The rat was squealing wildly, but not loudly enough to cover up the sounds drifting from Hagrid's garden. There was a jumble of indistinct male voices, a silence, and then, without warning, the unmistakable swish and thud of an axe.

Hermione swayed on the spot. "They did it!" she whispered to Harry. "I d-don't believe it… they did it!"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Crookshanks could smell the rat-man, even though he could not see him. The dog-man and the ancient fox had formulated a plan to capture the rat, and it was Crookshanks' job to drive the rat-man away from the children, to protect them while they sprung the trap.

He crawled toward the scents of the children, and could hear the red haired boy struggling and talking at the rat-man and his mistress calling at him.

"No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!"

But the plan had to work for the safety of his mistress and her friends, so Crookshanks stalked forward further.

"Scabbers… NO!"

And the-rat man dashed out of thin air. Crookshanks dived after him, the red haired boy behind him, bursting out of the area of nothing that the humans were hiding inside.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry and Hermione almost fell over Ron in their haste to follow him; they skidded to a stop right in front of him. They had chased after him as he ran after Crookshanks and Scabbers. He was sprawled on the ground, but Scabbers was back in his pocket; he had both hands held tight over the quivering lump.

"Ron… come on back under the cloak…" Hermione panted. "Dumbledore, the Minister… they'll be coming back out in a minute…"

But before they could get the cloak back over Ron, before they could even catch their breath, they heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws… something was bounding toward them, quiet as a shadow, an enormous, pale eyed, jet black dog.

Hermione stood wide eyed, watching as the dog leapt at Harry, and caught him with its front paws, knocking him to the ground and bounding past because of the force is its jump. It was growling as it skidded around for a new attack.

But Ron was on his feet. As the dog sprang back toward them he pushed Harry and Hermione aside; the dog's jaws latched instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Harry lunged, seizing the dog, but the beast ignored them, dragging Ron as easily as a rag doll.

Then out of nowhere, something hit Hermione and she fell, shrieking with pain. At her side she saw Harry fall.

They both groped for their wands. " _Lumos_!" they murmured together.

The wandlight showed him the trunk of a thick tree; they had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches were creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backward and forward to stop them going nearer.

And there, at the base of the trunk, was the dog, dragging Ron backward into a large gap in the roots… and Faykan, standing with his back to the trunk, oblivious to the madly swinging branches. He was stroking his hands across the trunk, speaking soothing words to the tree, causing it to ignore himself and the giant dog. "Faykan?" Harry cried, and the boy turned his bright blue eyes to them.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, " _Ra orn putta sen._ " The branched flailed again, creating a deadly shroud around Faykan as he changed into a fox, and dived into a hole at the base of the tree. Ron was fighting furiously, but his head and torso were slipping out of sight.

"Ron!" Harry shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again.

All they could see now was one of Ron's legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling him farther underground, but a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot; Ron's leg had broken, and a moment later, his foot vanished from sight.

"Harry, we've got to go for help…" Hermione gasped; she was bleeding too; the Willow had cut her across the shoulder.

"No!" Harry gasped, struggling madly to try and get closer to the tree, "We haven't got time…"

"Harry… we're never going to get through without help…" Hermione gasped.

Another branch whipped down at them, twigs clenched like knuckles.

"If they can get in, we can," Harry panted, darting between the writhing branches, trying to find a way in.

"Oh what to do… what to do?" Hermione said to herself, "Help, oh help please," she said to no one in particular.

Crookshanks darted forward from the darkness. He slithered between the battering branches like a snake and placed his front paw upon a knot on the trunk.

Abruptly the tree froze all movement ceasing. "Crookshanks!" Hermione whispered uncertainly. She reached forward and clutched Harry's arm. "How did he know?"

"Because he's friends with that dog… and Faykan…" Harry replied grimly, bitterness dripping off his voice, "Come on… keep out your wand…"

They covered the distance to the trunk in seconds, but before they had reached the gap in the roots, Crookshanks had slid into it with a flick of his bottlebrush tail. Harry went next; he crawled forward, headfirst, and slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel. Crookshanks was a little way along, his eyes flashing in the light from Harry's wand. Seconds later, Hermione slithered down beside him.

"Where's Ron?" she whispered in a terrified voice.

"This way," said Harry, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks.

"Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione asked breathlessly from behind him.

"I don't know... It's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever gotten into it... It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it was heading for Hogsmeade..."

They moved as fast as they could, bent almost double; ahead of them, Crookshanks' tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on went the passage; it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes... All Harry could think of was Ron and what Faykan and the enormous dog might be doing to him... He was drawing breath in sharp, painful gasps, running at a crouch; every thought of Faykan at the moment filled him with confused rage...

And then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Instead, Harry could see a patch of dim light through a small opening.

He and Hermione paused, gasping for breath, edging forward. Both raised their wands to see what lay beyond.

It was a room; a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up.

Harry glanced at Hermione, who looked very frightened but nodded. Harry pulled himself out of the hole, staring around. The room was deserted, but a door to their right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. Hermione suddenly grabbed Harry's arm again. Her wide eyes were traveling around the boarded windows.

"Harry," she whispered, "I think we're in the Shrieking Shack."

At that moment, there was a creak overhead. Something had moved upstairs. Both of them looked up at the ceiling. Hermione's grip on Harry's arm was so tight he was losing feeling in his fingers. He raised his eyebrows at her; she nodded again and let go.

Quietly as they could, they crept out into the hall and up the crumbling staircase. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe had been made by something being dragged upstairs.

They reached the dark landing. " _Nox_ ," they whispered together, and the lights at the end of their wands went out. Only one door was open. As they crept toward it, they heard movement from behind it; a low moan, and then a deep, loud purring. They exchanged a last look, a last nod.

Wand held tightly before him, Harry kicked the door wide open. On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lay Crookshanks, purring loudly at the sight of them. On the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Ron.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Sirius was watching the door to the bedroom while Faykan kept his wand on the red haired boy. Sirius knew that Harry and the bushy haired girl would come for their friend. Then he could explain everything and deal with Peter in one go. Faykan sniffed once, and Sirius looked at him.

The boy looked slightly forlorn; he had had a lot of resentment about his part of the plan: keeping the Whomping Willow from hurting Sirius as he pulled the rat, or as it turned out the boy with the rat, into the secret passage. Sirius had seen the look of betrayal and pain on Harry's face as Faykan used his special gift with the tree to prevent them from following until Crookshanks would intervene. It had torn straight through the boy's heart. It blearily reminded him of how James would look when Lily was mad at him.

"Don't worry," Sirius whispered, "If Harry is anything like his father, he'll understand, eventually." Faykan smiled slightly, and at that moment Harry and his friend burst into the room, darting straight to the red haired boy.

"Ron… are you okay?"

"Where's the dog?"

"Not a dog," the red haired boy, Ron, moaned. His teeth were gritted in pain. "Harry, it's a trap…"

"What…"

"He's the dog… he's an Animagus, just like _him_."

Ron was staring right at Sirius and Faykan across the room. Harry wheeled around, along with the brown haired girl. Sirius shut the door with a snap as he and Faykan stepped out of the shadows.

Faykan sadly flicked his wand, disarming both his friends, and caught their wands, his eyes downcast. But Sirius had eyes only for his best friend's son.

"I thought you'd come and help your friend," Sirius said, his voice still rather hoarse, even after all this time out of Azkaban. "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you both, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful… it will make everything much easier…"

He had clearly said the wrong thing. All emotion left Harry's eyes as Sirius mentioned James. The boy lunged for Sirius, but his friends held him back, "No Harry!" the girl gasped. Ron tried to stand and speak to Black and Faykan.

"If you two want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" he said fiercely, and he swayed slightly from the loss of blood.

"Ron, lie down," Faykan said calmly to the boy, "You'll hurt yourself more."

"Did you hear me?" Ron replied weakly, clutching to Harry just to stay upright. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"

"There'll be only one murder here tonight," Sirius said, grinning as he watched Peter squirm in Ron's pocket.

"Why's that?" Harry spat at him, straining to wrench himself free from Ron and the girl. "You didn't care last time. You didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew… What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"

"Harry," Faykan said softly, "It's not what you…"

"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry roared back, and with a huge effort he broke free of his friends and lunged at Sirius. "AND YOU LIED TO KEEP ME FROM STOPPOING HIM!

Faykan stepped between them, spreading his arms wide and blocked Harry from attacking Sirius. Harry collided heavily with the other Boy, but Faykan seemed rooted like iron to the floor and did not budge.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Harry yelled at him, but Faykan wouldn't move.

"No, Harry." He said, looking directly into the boy's face.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY, I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!" Harry roared, spittle flying into Faykan's face.

"No!" Faykan yelled back, "I won't let you, not until we've explained why we did this."

"YOU!" Harry screamed at him, trying to push past and get at Sirius. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THIS TIME! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE MY FRIEND, BUT YOU HELP THE MAN WHO WANTS TO KILL ME?"

"Please Harry," Faykan pleaded, "please calm down and listen to us."

"I'M NOT GOING TO WAIT FOR HIM TO KILL ME!" Harry screamed. He launched himself at Faykan, who refused to budge, and caught the full force of Harry's charge again.

Harry struggled to get around Faykan for a moment, and Sirius saw much of the rational thought drain out of the boy's eyes. He turned his wrath onto the obstacle blocking him from Sirius, and latched his hands around his friend's throat, straining to squeeze the life out of him. Faykan clawed at Harry's fingers, pleading with his bulging eyes, while their two friends shouted from across the room.

"Y-you don't… argh… understand… Harry," Faykan gasped, struggling to breathe as Harry choked him. "Pl-please… let us explain…" he sagged to his knees, Harry hands still around his throat. His, Harry's and the girl's wands clattered to the floor as he struggled to remove Harry's hands.

"NO!" Sirius yelled, springing to pry the boy's hands off, but the girl attacked him with a strong kick, and the boy, Ron, threw himself at Sirius' wand arm.

He fell, the boy's wand he had taken flying from his hand to join the pile on the floor, which the girl recollected and returned to Harry and Ron, keeping hers and Faykan's. Harry took his wand, releasing Faykan, who gasped and panted on the floor, while Harry pointed it at Sirius.

"Going to kill me Harry?" Sirius whispered.

"You killed my parents," Harry replied, his voice shaking, but his wand hand quite steady. Sirius didn't doubt that the boy could kill him in an instant right now.

"I don't deny it," Sirius replied very quietly. "But if you knew the whole story."

"N-no!" Faykan gasped, trying to get up, but still unsteady from the lack of oxygen.

"The whole story?" Harry repeated. "You sold them to Voldemort. That's all I need to know.

"Harry…" Faykan moaned quietly, but the boy ignored him.

"You've got to listen to me," Sirius said, urgency in his voice now. "You'll regret it if you don't... You don't understand..."

"I understand a lot better than you think," said Harry, and his voice shook more than ever. "You never heard her, did you? My mum... trying to stop Voldemort killing me... and you did that... you did it..."

Before either of them could say another word, Faykan threw himself over Sirius, directly in the path of Harry's wand, shielding Sirius from any curse Harry could possibly have cast.

"Move Faykan," Harry said coldly, "He deserves it,"

"Deserves it!" Faykan said, his voice still rough, but regaining its strength rapidly, "Don't be too eager to deal out death in judgment Harry. Even the very wise cannot see all ends." He looked up into the emerald green eyes that glowed with fury. "Many that live deserve death," Faykan continued in a small voice, "And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them Harry?"

Harry stared down at them both, but his wand arm was trembling now. Sirius wondered if he was considering killing them both, the friend that betrayed him and the supposed murderer of his parents. He raised the wand, his eyes darting from Faykan's face to Sirius'. The seconds lengthened, but he stood there frozen, ready to cast a curse.

And then a new sound came from beneath them. Footsteps, echoing up through the floor, someone was coming up the stairs.

"WE'RE UP HERE!" the girl screamed suddenly. "WE'RE UP HERE… SIRIUS BLACK… QUICK!"

The door of the room burst open in a shower of red sparks, causing Harry to wheel around as Remus, wonderful Remus Lupin hurtled into the room. His face was white, wand raised and ready. His eyed surveyed the room quickly.

" _Expelliarmus_!" Remus shouted, causing all the wands in the room to sail into his free hand. Sirius breathed a small sigh of relief. His most intelligent friend would at the least hear him out.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry stood there, wandless and empty. He hadn't done it. His nerve had failed him. The inkling of doubt prevented him from avenging his parents. Black would be handed to the dementors, and vengeance would pass from him.

Harry wondered absently what would happen to Faykan when they found out he had been helping Black from the beginning. Harry was so lost, his best friend had betrayed him; helping a murder get so close to him, and almost kill him. But the tinest speck of doubt wanted to believe them, to consider that there might be something more to the story.

Then Professor Lupin spoke, in a very tense voice. "Where is he, Sirius?"

Harry looked quickly at Lupin with wide eyes. He didn't understand what Lupin meant. Who was he talking about? He turned to look at Black again.

Black's face was quite expressionless. For a few seconds, he didn't move at all. Then, very slowly, he raised his empty hand and pointed straight at Ron. Mystified, Harry glanced around at Ron, who looked bewildered.

"But then..." Lupin muttered, staring at Black so intently it seemed he was trying to read his mind, "... why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless…" Lupin's eyes suddenly widened, as though he was seeing something beyond Black, something none of the rest could see, "…unless he was the one... unless you switched... without telling me?"

Very slowly, his sunken gaze never leaving Lupin's face, and Black nodded.

"Professor," Harry interrupted loudly, "what's going on…?"

But he never finished the question, because what he saw made his voice die in his throat. Lupin was lowering his wand, gazing fixed at Black. The Professor walked to Black's side, seized his hand, pulled him to his feet, and embraced Black like a brother. Faykan stood shakily afterward, and stood in a corner trying to stop his hands from trembling.

Harry felt as though the bottom had dropped out of his stomach.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed.

Lupin let go of Black and turned to her. She had raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Lupin, wild eyed. "You… you…"

"Hermione…" their professor started, but Hermione cut him off.

"…you too!"

"Hermione, calm down…" Faykan said, his voice still very gravely from what Harry had done. Harry felt a tiny pang of remorse. He had been so angry and had lost control of himself.

"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you," she glanced at Faykan as well, "Both of you."

"Hermione, listen to me, please" Lupin shouted. "I can explain…"

Harry could feel himself shaking again with a fresh wave of fury.

"I trusted you," Harry yelled, partially at Lupin and partially at Faykan, who shrank back as if physically struck, "and all this time you've both been helping him, all this time you've been his friends!"

"You're wrong," said Lupin. "I haven't been Sirius' friend, but I am now… Let me explain…"

"NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust them, they've been helping Black into the castle, and they clearly want you dead too… Lupin is a werewolf!"

"Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione," he said. "Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead." An odd shiver passed over his face. "But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."

Ron made a valiant effort to get up again but fell back with a whimper of pain. Lupin made toward him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped, "Get away from me, werewolf!"

Lupin stopped dead. Then, with an obvious effort, he turned to Hermione and said, "How long have you known?"

"Ages," Hermione whispered. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay..."

"He'll be delighted," said Lupin coolly. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant... Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"

"Both," Hermione said quietly.

Lupin forced a laugh. "You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione."

"I'm not," Hermione whispered. "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"

"But they already know," said Lupin. "At least, the staff does."

"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf!" Ron gasped. "Is he mad?"

Faykan laughed slightly, watching his feet, and he mumbled something that sounded like, "Dumbledore… mad…"

"Some of the staff thought so," said Lupin. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy…"

"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!"

He was pointing at Black, who suddenly crossed to the four-poster bed and sank onto it, beckoning for Faykan to come over to him. Crookshanks leapt up beside him and stepped onto his lap, purring as Faykan joined him, standing in front of Black, still not looking up. Ron edged away from both of them, dragging his leg.

"I have not been helping Sirius," said Lupin. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look…"

He separated Harry's, Ron's, Faykan's, and Hermione's wands and threw each back to its owner; Harry caught his, stunned. Faykan's hit him and clattered back to the floor. He didn't even try to pick it up again so Black did it for him, handing him the wand. Faykan took it and looked at it confused, then slowly put it in his robes.

"There," said Lupin, sticking his own wand back into his belt "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"

Harry didn't know what to think. Was it a trick?

"If you haven't been helping them," he said, with a furious glance at Faykan and Black, "how did you know he was here?"

"The map," said Lupin. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it…"

"You know how to work it?" Harry said suspiciously.

"Of course I know how to work it," said Lupin, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony… that was my friends' nickname for me at school."

"You wrote…?"

"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron, Faykan, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I."

He had started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at his feet.

"You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry…"

"How'd you know about the cloak?"

"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it...," said Lupin, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds, watched as Faykan broke off to disappear into the forest, and as you entered Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."

"What?" said Harry. "No, we weren't!"

"I couldn't believe my eyes," said Lupin, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. It seemed to every time I looked at Faykan's dot, but how could _he_ be with you?"

"No one was with us!" said Harry.

"And then I saw another pair of dots, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black, and Faykan Undol... I saw Sirius collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow, followed quickly by Faykan…"

"One of us!" Ron said angrily.

"No, Ron," said Lupin. "Two of you."

He had stopped his pacing, his eyes moving over Ron.

"Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" he said evenly.

"What?" said Ron. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?"

"Everything," said Lupin. "Could I see him, please?"

Ron hesitated, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately; Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him escaping. Crookshanks stood up on Black's leg and made a soft hissing noise.

Lupin moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers.

"What?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared.

"What's my rat got to do with anything?"

"That's not a rat," croaked Sirius Black suddenly. Even Faykan's eyes widened.

"What d'you mean… of course he's a rat…" Ron stammered

"No, he's not," said Lupin quietly. "He's a wizard."

"An Animagus," said Black, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."

"You're mental, all three of you!" Ron cried.

"Ridiculous!" said Hermione faintly.

"Of course…" Faykan breathed, looking at Scabbers.

"No." Harry said firmly, "Pettigrew's dead. You killed him." He declared, pointing at Black.

"I meant to…" he growled, his yellow teeth bared, "but little Peter got the better of me…" he then turned to look at Lupin again. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for…"

"But there were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," Harry said, ignoring Ron's mutterings of 'nutters, the lot of them.'

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter," said Lupin, nodding. "I believed it myself, until I saw the map tonight. The Marauder's map never lies... Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."

Harry looked down at Ron, and as their eyes met, they agreed, silently: Black and Lupin were both out of their minds. Their story made no sense whatsoever. How could Scabbers be Peter Pettigrew? Azkaban must have unhinged Black after all, but why was Lupin or Faykan playing along with him?

Then Hermione spoke, in a trembling, would-be calm sort of voice, as though trying to will Professor Lupin to talk sensibly.

"But Professor Lupin... Scabbers can't be Pettigrew... it just can't be true, you know it can't..."

"Why can't it be true?" Lupin said calmly, as though they were in class, and Hermione had simply spotted a problem in an experiment with grindylows.

"Because... because people would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus. We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. And I looked them up when I did my homework - the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and things... and I went and looked Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven Animagi this century, and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list."

"Was my name on the list Hermione?" Faykan said suddenly. Hermione opened her mouth, but didn't speak.

"Unregistered Animagi exist everywhere Hermione. It is not unheard of for three to have run around Hogwarts unnoticed." Faykan continued, snapping out of his daze.

"If you two would like to get a move on," Black said, still watching Scabbers, "I've waited twelve years; I'm not going to wait much longer…"

 _Ra orn putta sen : Great tree stop them_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You Have Been Warned!**

 _Very canon chapter here at the climax, predominantly because the shakers and movers here had little to no interaction in plan-making with Faykan. and yes, shameless cliffhanger I know. If/When I finish the edits I am considering upping the postings to every week so that it can get pushed through quicker, let me know whether this is something you'd want or if the pace now is good to balance with everything else I write, should you read the other stories I write. Until next time everyone! ~F_


	41. Y3-C15: The Wraiths of Azkaban

_Many thanks to those who keep up the steady encouragement regarding this rwwrite! We are finally near to the end of year 3's content, and I am very excited to present the newer content that is ushered in in the next few chapters, as well as books 4 and 5's content. much fun yet to be had, and excitement is high! enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Fifteen**

 **The Wraiths of Azkaban**

Severus crept up the stairs of the Shrieking Shack, following the sounds of voices. He reached the door and shifted inside as he heard Lupin break off from talking to Black. He silently thanked Merlin for Potter's Invisibility Cloak, since everyone had looked at the door as it swung open.

Lupin strode to the door and looked out into the landing as Severus moved to the far wall of the room, away from Potter, his friends, Black, and Lupin.

"No one there…" Lupin muttered.

"This place is haunted!" Weasley said stupidly.

"It's not," Lupin said, still looking puzzled at the door. He then began to explain about their days at school, how he had been allowed even as a werewolf to come to Hogwarts, and that he had been shipped to this room every month for his full moon transformation.

He continued with how Black, Potter, and Pettigrew had grown aware of his statue, and chose to become Animagi to be with him during his transformations. He was just talking about when Black had tried to kill Severus when he decided to make himself known.

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," Potter was saying to Lupin, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"

"That's right," Severus sneered, pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointing, directly at Lupin.

Granger screamed. Black leapt to his feet, knocking Undol aside slightly while Potter just stood frozen in the middle of the room.

"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow," Severus commented, tossing the cloak aside on a chair, careful to keep his wand on Lupin. "Very useful Potter, I thank you…"

Severus was slightly breathless, and he looked around the room for a moment. "You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he continued after a moment, "You forgot to take your potion tonight, Lupin, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did... lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."

"Severus…" Lupin began, but Severus overrode him.

"I've told the Headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout…"

"Severus, you're making a mistake," said Lupin urgently. "You haven't heard everything… I can explain: Sirius is not here to kill Harry…"

"Two more for Azkaban tonight," Severus hissed, gloating. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this... He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin... a tame werewolf…"

"You fool," said Lupin softly. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"

BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Severus' wand and twisted themselves around Lupin's mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started toward Severus, but he merely pointed his wand straight between Black's eyes.

"Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."

Black stopped dead.

Potter stood paralyzed. Severus glanced around at the boy's friends. Weasley looked just as confused as he always did, still fighting to keep hold on his struggling rat. Granger, however, took an uncertain step toward Snape and said, in a very breathless voice, "Professor Snape, it… it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?"

"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Severus spat. "You, Potter, Undol, and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue."

"But if, if there was a mistake…"

"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Severus shouted, desperately trying to keep his temper. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" A few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Black's face. Granger fell silent.

"Vengeance is very sweet," Severus breathed at Black. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..."

"The joke's on you again, Severus," Black snarled. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle," he jerked his head at Weasley "I'll come quietly..."

"Up to the castle?" said Severus silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black... pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay..."

What little color there was left in Black's face drained away.

"You… you've got to hear me out," he croaked. "The rat… look at the rat…"

"Come on, all of you," Severus said to the Gryffindors. He clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound Lupin flew to his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too…"

Severus turned to lead them out of the room, but found his way blocked by Undol, who seemed to have materialized in the doorway. Severus almost dismissed the boy but was taken aback by the glow in the boy's eyes.

"Get out of the way, Undol, you're in enough trouble already," Severus snarled at him. "If I hadn't been here to save all your skins…"

"You have no idea Severus," Undol said calmly, "You have no idea what has been going on and I will not allow you to kill either of these _innocent_ men."

"How dare you!" Severus breathed. The boy was clearly out of his mind, "Now get out of the way."

"I will not." And the boy raised his wand, " _Kaima_!" A flash of light erupted from the wand, and Severus knew no more.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry watched as Snape slumped to the floor, fast asleep, by the work of Faykan's wand. He had defended Black and Professor Lupin now, again.

"You shouldn't have done that," Black said to him, "You should have left him to me…"

"You attacked a teacher… you attacked a teacher…" Hermione whimpered, staring at Faykan, "Oh, we're going to be in so much trouble when he wakes up…"

Lupin was struggling against his bonds. Black bent down quickly and untied him. Lupin straightened up, rubbing his arms where the ropes had cut into them.

"Thank you Mr. Undol," he said, and then tuned back to Harry, "It's time we offered you some proof," he turned to Ron, "You, boy… give me Peter, please. Now."

Ron clutched Scabbers closer to his chest.

"Come off it," he said weakly. "Are you trying to say he broke out of Azkaban just to get his hands on Scabbers? I mean..." He looked up at Harry and Hermione for support, "Okay, say Pettigrew could turn into a rat… there are millions of rats, how's he supposed to know which one he's after if he was locked up in Azkaban?"

"You know, Sirius, that's a fair question," said Lupin, turning to Black and frowning slightly. "How did you find out where he was?"

Black put one of his claw-like hands inside his robes and took out a crumpled piece of paper, which he smoothed flat and held out to show the others.

It was the photograph of Ron and his family that had appeared in the Daily Prophet the previous summer, and there, on Ron's shoulder, was Scabbers.

"My God," said Lupin softly, staring from Scabbers to the picture in the paper and back again. "His front paw..."

"What about it?" said Ron defiantly.

"He's got a toe missing," said Black.

"Of course," Lupin breathed. "So simple... so brilliant... he cut it off himself?"

"Just before he transformed," said Black. "When I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself, and sped down into the sewer with the other rats..."

"Didn't you ever hear, Ron?" said Lupin. "The biggest bit of Peter they found was his finger."

Ron wasn't listening however, "Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages, right…"

"Twelve years," said Faykan. Ron stared at him, and he shrugged, "I asked Percy about it at one point…"

"Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?" Lupin asked, nodding to himself.

"We-we've been taking good care of him!" said Ron.

"Not looking too good at the moment, though, is he?" said Lupin. "I'd guess he's been losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again..."

"He's been scared of that mad cat!" said Ron, nodding toward Crookshanks, who was still purring on the bed.

But that wasn't right, Harry thought suddenly... Scabbers had been looking ill before he met Crookshanks... ever since Ron's return from Egypt... since the time when Black had escaped...

"This cat isn't mad," said Black hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked Crookshanks' fluffy head. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met. He recognized Peter for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. He had been helping me until Faykan here followed him out to where I had been hiding."

"That leads to my other question," Lupin said, turning to Faykan, "How do you fit into this story Mr. Undol?"

Faykan shrugged, "Well, I followed Crookshanks out one night and found Sirius," Faykan explained, "I remembered seeing him in his animagus form back when I took Harry away from his relatives, so I took a guess that he was who he was. Since he had not attacked us back in Little Whinging, I presumed that he was after something other than Harry, so I chose to offer him my assistance."

Faykan took a breath, glancing at Black for a moment. "It took him a while to trust me, and he never did tell me the full story of what he was after or why he was here, but I trusted him enough to give him Neville's list of passwords to get him into Gryffindor Tower, and to help him buy Harry's Firebolt. But unfortunately I could not help him without the knowledge that he refused to tell me. I heard and smelt him near Hagrid's when we went down, so I went into the forest, met him and Crookshanks, and together we formulated the plan to get Harry, Ron, and Hermione in here. I presume Sirius knew that Peter was inside Hagrid's?" he added and Black nodded.

"You say you heard and smelt him?" Lupin asked, "How did you manage that?"

"Sirius isn't the only illegal Animagus at Hogwarts right now," Faykan said with a grin.

"You?" Lupin said, curiosity in his voice.

"Yes, I'm a fox, the same large black one you've seen in the castle from time to time."

"Of course, your tattoos" Lupin said, slapping himself on the forehead, "Why didn't I see it before?"

Harry's brain seemed to be sagging under the weight of what he was hearing. It was absurd... and yet...

"Anyway," Black interrupted, "We formed the plan to get Peter out of Hagrid's because he faked his own death again to get out of the castle… I suppose he bit himself to put blood on the bed sheets, Faykan told me on one of the days he came to visit me."

These words jolted Harry to his senses.

"And why did he fake his death?" he demanded furiously. "Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"

"No," said Lupin, "Harry…"

"And now you've come to finish him off!" Harry ranted.

"Yes, I have," said Black, with an evil look at Scabbers.

"Then I should've helped Snape take you!" Harry shouted.

"Harry," said Lupin hurriedly, "don't you see? All this time we've thought Sirius betrayed your parents, and Peter tracked him down, but it was the other way around, don't you see? Peter betrayed your mother and father… Sirius tracked Peter down…"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry yelled. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"

He was pointing at Black, who shook his head slowly; the sunken eyes were suddenly over bright.

"Harry... I as good as killed them," he croaked. "I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me... I'm to blame, I know it... The night they died, I'd arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he'd gone. Yet there was no sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right. I was scared. I set out for your parents' house straight away. And when I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies... I realized what Peter must've done... what I'd done..." His voice broke. He turned away.

"Enough of this," said Lupin, and there was a steely note in his voice Harry had never heard before. "There's one certain way to prove what really happened. Ron, give me that rat."

"What are you going to do with him if I give him to you?" Ron asked Lupin tensely.

"Force him to show himself," said Lupin. "If he really is a rat, it won't hurt him."

Ron hesitated. Then at long last, he held out Scabbers and Lupin took him. Scabbers began to squeak without stopping, twisting and turning, his tiny black eyes bulging in his head. "Ready, Sirius?" said Lupin.

Black had already retrieved Snape's wand from the bed. He approached Lupin and the struggling rat, and his wet eyes suddenly seemed to be burning in his face.

"Together?" he said quietly.

"I think so," said Lupin, holding Scabbers tightly in one hand and his wand in the other. "On the count of three. One… two… THREE!"

A flash of blue white light erupted from both wands; for a moment, Scabbers was frozen in midair, his small gray form twisting madly, Ron yelled, the rat fell and hit the floor. There was another blinding flash of light and then…

It was like watching a speeded up film of a growing tree. A head was shooting upward from the ground; limbs were sprouting; a moment later, a man was standing where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his hands. Crookshanks was spitting and snarling on the bed; the hair on his back was standing up. Faykan watched with a bored expression, as if this happened every day.

He was a very short man, hardly taller than Harry and Hermione. His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers' fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. He looked around at them all, his breathing fast and shallow. Harry saw his eyes dart to the door and back again.

"Well, hello, Peter," said Lupin pleasantly, as though rats frequently erupted into old school friends around him. "Long time, no see."

"S-Sirius... R-Remus..." Even Pettigrew's voice was squeaky. Again, his eyes darted toward the door. "My friends... my old friends..."

Black's wand arm rose, but Lupin seized him around the wrist, gave him a warning took, and then turned again to Pettigrew, his voice light and casual.

"We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed…"

"Remus," gasped Pettigrew, and Harry could see beads of sweat breaking out over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you...? He tried to kill me, Remus..."

They continued like this for several minutes, Lupin trying to get answers, and Pettigrew dodging the questions intermitted with squeaks of accusation at Black. Hermione suggested that Pettigrew could have harmed Harry for the last three years, and asked about how Black had escaped Azkaban. He answered that he used his animagus ability to slip past the dementors, who have difficulty sensing animal thoughts, as they are different and less complex than human.

"Believe me," croaked Black at last. "Believe me, Harry. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them."

And at long last, Harry believed him. Throat too tight to speak, he nodded.

"No!" screamed a tiny voice.

Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as though Harry's nod had been his own death sentence. He shuffled forward on his knees, groveling, his hands clasped in front of him as though praying. "Sirius, it's me... it's Peter... your friend... you wouldn't…"

Black kicked out and Pettigrew recoiled.

"There's enough filth on my robes without you touching them," said Black.

"Remus!" Pettigrew squeaked, turning to Lupin instead, writhing imploringly in front of him. "You don't believe this wouldn't Sirius have told you they'd changed the plan?"

"Not if he thought I was the spy, Peter," said Lupin. "I assume that's why you didn't tell me, Sirius?" he said casually over Pettigrew's head.

"Forgive me, Remus," said Black.

"Not at all, Padfoot, old friend," Lupin replied, now rolling up his sleeves. "And will you, in turn, forgive me for believing you were the spy?"

"Of course," said Black, and the ghost of a grin flitted across his gaunt face. He, too, began rolling up his sleeves. "Shall we kill him together?"

"Yes, I think so," said Lupin grimly.

"You wouldn't... you won't...," gasped Pettigrew. And he scrambled around to Ron.

"Ron... haven't I been a good friend... a good pet? You won't let them kill me, Ron, will you... you're on my side, aren't you.

But Ron was staring at Pettigrew with the utmost revulsion.

"I let you sleep in my bed!" he said.

"Kind boy... kind master..." Pettigrew crawled toward Ron "You won't let them do it... I was your rat... I was a good pet..."

"If you made a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter," said Black harshly. Ron, going still paler with pain, wrenched his broken leg out of Pettigrew's reach. Pettigrew turned on his knees, staggered forward, and seized the hems of Faykan and Hermione's robes.

"Sweet girl... clever boy... you, you won't let them... Help me..."

Hermione pulled her robes out of Pettigrew's clutching hands and backed away against the wall, looking horrified. Faykan lashed out himself, kicking Pettigrew back toward Black and Lupin.

Pettigrew knelt, trembling uncontrollably, and turned his head slowly toward Harry.

"Harry... Harry... you look just like your father... just like him..."

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY?" roared Black. "HOW DARE YOU

FACE HIM? HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?"

"Harry," whispered Pettigrew, shuffling toward him, hands outstretched. "Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed... James would have understood, Harry... he would have shown me mercy..."

Both Black and Lupin strode forward, seized Pettigrew's shoulders, and threw him backward onto the floor. He sat there, twitching with terror, staring up at them.

"You should have realized," said Lupin quietly, "if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Goodbye, Peter."

Hermione covered her face with her hands and turned to the wall.

"NO!" Harry yelled. He ran forward, placing himself in front Pettigrew, facing the wands. "You can't kill him," he said breathlessly. "You can't."

Black and Lupin both looked staggered.

"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Black snarled. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family."

"I know," Harry panted. "We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to the dementors... He can go to Azkaban... but don't kill him."

"Harry!" gasped Pettigrew, and he flung his arms around Harry's knees. "You… thank you, it's more than I deserve, thank you…"

"Get off me," Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew's hands off him in disgust. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because; I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers… just for you."

No one moved or made a sound except Pettigrew, whose breath was coming in wheezes as he clutched his chest. Black and Lupin were looking at each other. Then, with one movement, they lowered their wands.

"You're the only person who has the right to decide, Harry," said Black. "But think... think what he did..."

"He can go to Azkaban," Harry repeated. "If anyone deserves that place, he does..."

"Very well," said Lupin. "Stand aside, Harry."

Harry hesitated.

"I'm going to tie him up," said Lupin. "That's all, I swear."

Harry stepped out of the way. Thin cords shot from Lupin's wand this time, and next moment, Pettigrew was wriggling on the floor, bound and gagged.

Faykan stepped over to Ron, "Well, I can't heal your le, you resisted too long and it's past the time I could, but I can make the pain stop for a few hours… there's something we all need to learn… healing," he chuckled half heartedly as he waved his wand over Ron's leg. A second wave and bandages spun up and around, strapping the leg tightly to a conjured split. "And that should prevent you from injuring it further as we get you up to the castle."

Faykan pulled Ron to his feet; Ron put his weight gingerly on the leg and didn't wince.

"Much better, thanks" he said.

"What about Professor Snape?" asked Hermione in a small voice, looking down at Snape's prone figure.

"There's nothing seriously wrong with him," said Lupin, bending over Snape and checking his pulse. "He just asleep. Ah… perhaps it will be best if we don't awaken him until we're safety back in the castle. We can take him like this..."

He muttered, " _Mobilicorpus_." As though invisible strings were tied to Snape's wrists, neck, and knees, he was pulled into a standing position, head still lolling unpleasantly, like a grotesque puppet. He hung a few inches above the ground, his limp feet dangling. Lupin picked up the Invisibility Cloak and tucked it safely into his pocket.

"And two of us should be chained to this," said Black, nudging Pettigrew with his toe. "Just to make sure."

Both Lupin and Ron volunteered, and Black conjured manacles and attached them to Lupin's and Ron's arms, connecting them to Pettigrew.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione wondered absently what people might think if they saw their group moving along back down the passage to the Whomping Willow. Crookshanks was leading, followed by Lupin and Ron, chained with Pettigrew between them. Next came Professor Snape, drifting asleep in midair, held up by Sirius Black, using Snape's own wand. And finally herself, Faykan, and Harry brought up the rear of the strange precession.

Faykan was pointedly not looking at Harry, and Hermione could guess as to why. From the explanations from Sirius, it had torn Faykan up inside to betray them in any fashion, even if it was for their safety. Add that to nearly being strangled to death by his best friend, and the person he was secretly in love with, and Hermione was certain that Faykan was not having the best of nights.

"You know what this means?" Black said abruptly to Harry as they made their slow progress along the tunnel. "Turning Pettigrew in?"

"You're free," said Harry.

"Yes..." said Black, "but I'm also, I don't know if anyone ever told you… I'm your godfather."

"Yeah, I knew that," said Harry.

"Well... your parents appointed me your guardian," said Black stiffly. "If anything happened to them..."

Harry hesitated slightly, holding his breath.

"I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle," said Black. "But... well... think about it. Once my name's cleared... if you wanted a... a different home..."

Harry's head snapped up, and he winced as he hit a bit of protruding rock. Hermione felt a tug on her hand, keeping her back as the rest moved forward. She turned to Faykan, who released her arm after Harry and Black moved ahead a bit. "Let's allow them some privacy; this is something that Harry will cherish forever." Faykan said in a quiet voice.

Hermione smiled, this was something that only a best friend would think of. They started making their way down the tunnel again, and Hermione voiced the thought that had been plaguing her for some time, "If you love him, you really should tell him your feelings."

But Faykan was already shaking his head, "You don't understand my feelings Hermione."

"What don't I understand?" Hermione protested. To her it was a very simple concept.

"Anything regarding our relationship Hermione," Faykan said back, only a touch of condescension. "I am not romantically attracted to Harry, I simply feel compelled to be there for him. The very notion disgusts me, as it is what pushes Nott on his advances to me. I am probably the closest thing to family that Harry has, and he to me." Hermione heard the words, and her entire world of thought regarding the pair shattered around her. It really was just as simple as two boys being brothers in all but blood. She wasn't completely sure if she believed Faykan completely, but decided against pushing him on the topic.

They continued on in a muted silence until Hermione climbed out of the hole under the Whomping Willow. The grounds were very dark now; the only light came from the distant windows of the castle. Without a word, they set off. Pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering. Hermione saw that Harry had a small smile on his face, his eyes focused off into the distance, clearly thinking about living with Sirius when he was freed.

"One wrong move, Peter," said Lupin threateningly ahead. His wand was still pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest.

Silently they tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. Snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of Black, his chin bumping on his chest. And then…

A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their party was bathed in moonlight.

Snape collided with Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron, who had stopped abruptly. Black froze. He flung out one arm to make Harry, Faykan, and Hermione stop.

Hermione could see Lupin's silhouette. He had gone rigid. Then his limbs began to shake.

"Oh, my…" she gasped. "He didn't take his potion tonight! He's not safe!"

"Run," Black whispered, "Run. Now."

But Harry didn't run. He leapt forward but Black caught him around the chest and threw him back.

"Leave it to me! RUN!"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus returned to consciousness slowly, his head throbbing as he awakened. He opened his eyes to see Potter, Undol, and Granger standing near him, their eyes transfixed on something behind him.

Severus stood, swaying slightly as he glared at the three students. He remembered Undol attacking him, right as he was about to capture Black and Lupin together.

"You four!" he sneered, but they ignored him, staring wide eyed behind him. Slowly, Severus turned, and the sight chilled him to the very bone. Lupin had transformed, and without the potion he was wild and dangerous. The werewolf's eyes were fixed on the four of them, and it stalked forward slowly, raising a paw to swipe Severus aside.

Severus threw his arms wide, protecting the students with his own body, and for an instant he thought he might die doing exactly as Lily would have expected him, protecting the son she had died to save. As his life flashed before his eyes, a giant black dog leaped from behind at the werewolf. It latched its jaws around the beast's arm and began dragging it backward, away from the humans.

"Sirius!" Potter cried, darting around Severus' arm and chasing foolishly after the werewolf and dog, snatching up stones from the ground.

"Come back here Potter!" Severus yelled, grasping onto Granger and Undol to prevent them from following.

The stupid boy threw his stones at the werewolf, distracting it from biting down on the dog, but its attention was redirected at him. It charged…

"NO! Harry!" Undol cried, wrenching himself from Severus' grip, diving headlong at the werewolf, just as he changed. Severus' eyes widened. Undol shifted into the large black fox, just as he hit the werewolf full force in the chest, clawing and biting at it, causing the beast to howl in fury and throw the fox into a nearby tree.

But the distractions were just enough to allow the giant dog to recover, and it attacked the werewolf again, drawing its attention once more and forcing the beast to chase it into the forest, away from them all. Potter stupidly chased after them. Severus cursed, and darted after them, glancing back at Granger, who was crouching by Weasley, who had been stunned apparently.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry's mind was reeling, both Faykan and Sirius were forcing Lupin to chase them into the forest, but how were they going to stop a rampaging werewolf?

Then, from beyond the trees, Harry heard a yelping, a whining, like a dog in pain…

"Sirius!" Harry yelled, plunging into the darkness.

The yelping seemed to be coming from the ground near the edge of the lake. He pelted toward it, and Harry, running flat out, felt the cold without realizing what it must mean…

The yelping stopped abruptly. As Harry reached the lakeshore, he saw why. Sirius had turned back into a man. He was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head.

"Nooo," he moaned. "Nooo... please..."

And then Harry saw them. Dementors, at least a hundred of them, were gliding in a black mass around the lake toward them. He spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating his insides, fog starting to obscure his vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling them...

"NO!" he yelled, raising his wand, blinking furiously to try and clear his vision, shaking his head to rid it of the faint screaming that had started inside it. 'I'm going to live with my godfather. I'm leaving the Dursleys.' He forced himself to think of Black, and only Black, and began to chant: " _Expecto patronum_! _Expecto patronum_!"

The dementors were closing in, barely ten feet from them. They formed a solid wall around Harry, drawing closer…

" _EXPECTO PATRONUM_!" Harry yelled, trying to blot the screaming from his ears. " _EXPECTO PATRONUM_!"

A thin wisp of silver escaped his wand and hovered like mist before him. But it was too weak; he couldn't fend off all these on his own…

" _Expecto… Expecto patronum_ …"

Harry felt his knees hit the cold grass. Fog was clouding his eyes. With a huge effort, he fought to remember, 'Sirius was innocent… innocent… We'll be okay… I'm going to live with him…'

" _Expecto patronum_!" he gasped.

By the feeble light of his formless Patronus, He saw a large, strangely grey-robed dementor halt very close to him. It couldn't pass through the cloud of silver mist Harry had conjured. A dead, slimy hand slid out from under the cloak, holding a cruel dagger. It made a gesture as though to cut the Patronus aside. The light snuffed out immediately.

"No… no" Harry gasped.

He could feel them watching him, hear their rattling breath like an evil wind around him. The nearest dementor seemed to be considering him, holding the dagger out, the blade seemed to shine eerily green. The sounds of their breathing seemed to alter, becoming almost words, but Harry couldn't make them out. His mind was going blank with screams.

" _Expecto Patronum_!" a new voice bellowed. A giant silver bird flew directly at the dementor above Harry, pushing it back, swiping it talons and snapping its beak at the cloaked wraith.

Someone knelt by Harry, checking his pulse, someone familiar. But the white fog still remained, the dementors were still there.

"You cannot have them!" the voice cried out again, "Be gone Brenin Llwyd! Leave us in peace. Or living or dark undead, I will smite you if you touch them!"

But the cold was closing in again, the person's Patronus was fading, the silvery light was leaving them as the dementors drained it away.

Someone screamed, and the fog piled into Harry's mind, choking him, his mother was screaming in his ears… she was going to be the last thing he ever heard…

And then, through the fog that was drowning him, he thought he saw a silvery light growing brighter and brighter... He felt himself fall forward onto the grass... Facedown, too weak to move, sick and shaking, Harry opened his eyes. The dementor must have released him. The blinding light was illuminating the grass around him... The screaming had stopped; the cold was ebbing away... Something was driving the dementors back... It was circling around him and Black and their first rescuer… they were leaving…

The air was warm again...

With every ounce of strength he could muster, Harry raised his head a few inches and saw an animal amid the light, galloping away across the lake... Eyes blurred with sweat, Harry tried to make out what it was... It was as bright as a unicorn... Fighting to stay conscious, Harry watched it canter to a halt as it reached the opposite shore. For a moment, Harry saw, by its brightness, somebody welcoming it back... raising his hand to pat it... someone who looked strangely familiar... but it couldn't be...

Harry didn't understand. He couldn't think anymore. He felt the last of his strength leave him, and his head hit the ground as he fainted.

 _Kaima : Sleep_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _In terms of what has changed from the original to this edit, I further ironed out the vehement denial of any sort of slash relationship between Faykan and Harry in Hermione's perspective, although she still does not believe it. My own personal joke as the majority of stories I was reading, and dropping, at the time were heavy slash and I was getting tired of it... this was a long time before I learned the tricks of sifting through the crap to find the gems in fanfiction, and I have to say I think I've mastered that technique in the intervening time._

 _Also, the change from a Nazgul leading the horde of dementors to a grey dementor: the_ Brenin Llwyd, _is intentional, as I've added a small subplot that will start to become clearer in book 5-7, when the constraints of the wizarding world start to fall away and Harry becomes more aware and in control of his surroundings. As this is the section for the super special awesome people who want to know all the background things, I had originally intended this story to be a combination of 4 others, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the Dark is Rising, and the Sword in the Stone/Arthurian Legand, the advent of the_ Brenin Llwyd, or the Grey King, is the start of the nudges into Faykan's past between LotR and HP eras, and the tie-in to the Dark Is Rising Sequence, which I would highly recommend to anyone who loves either HP or LotR.

Until next time everyone! You're all awesome! ~F


	42. Y3-C16: Turning back Time

_Forty chapters in, an I am still being asked when Harry is going to Middle Earth... it makes me wonder if some people actually are reading the story. However, just to clarify, Middle Earth is the history of Britain. That was and remains the entire premise of this fic. But not that that is cleared up, let's move on to the new chapter! enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Sixteen**

 **Turning back Time**

Severus listened with half an ear as the Minister spoke to him. His first concern was getting his new Athelas potion up to the hospital wing to help heal the victims of the dementor attack.

"Shocking business... shocking... miracle none of them died... never heard the like... by thunder, it was lucky you were there, Snape..." Fudge was saying as they entered the Hospital wing, Snape levitating a large cauldron between them.

"Thank you Minister." He replied, moving over to where Potter and Undol lay unconscious on beds.

Undol was gasping in pain, thrashing unconsciously just as he had been when he arrived at the beginning of that school year. Hopefully, Severus had perfected this potion to amplify the effects of the herb, and it would sooth the emotional pain, allowing the boy to settle into peaceful sleep.

Despite everything between them, Severus would never wish pain like this on anyone, except maybe Black or Lupin, but certainly not a thirteen-year-old boy. Severus was still surprised to find that the large black fox he had seen all over the castle was Undol, and he finally remembered seeing it since the boy's first year at the school, when he had confronted Quirrell on the third floor at Halloween.

Apparently the boy had been up to his own devises, even back then. Albus was right to be wary of the boy. He was clearly dangerous, to be so powerful at such a young age.

"Order of Merlin, Second Class, I'd say, First Class if I can wangle it!" Fudge continued, oblivious to the cries of pain coming from the bed in front of him, or Severus' deliberate ignoring of his prattle.

"Thank you very much indeed, Minister." Severus said idly, pooling some of the potion into bowls to place at the head of each of the student's beds.

"Nasty cut you've got there... Black's work, I suppose?"

"As a matter of fact, it was Mr. Undol here Minister..." Severus admitted, momentarily glowering at the boy before him.

"No!" Fudge gaped, seeing the struggling boy as if for the first time.

"Black had bewitched him," Severus fabricated, under orders from the Headmaster to shroud the truth. "I saw it immediately. A Confundus Charm, or the Imperious curse, to judge by his behavior. He was absolutely convinced that Black was innocent. He cannot be held responsible for his actions."

Severus grimaced at the words that Albus had forced him to say to protect the students. He personally knew that all four of them had known exactly what they were doing at the time. "On the other hand, his interference might have permitted Black to escape… Potter and his other friends obviously thought they were going to catch Black single-handed. They've got away with a great deal before now... I'm afraid it's given them a rather high opinion of themselves... and of course Potter has always been allowed an extraordinary amount of license by the headmaster…"

"Ah, well, Snape... Harry Potter, you know... we've all got a bit of a blind spot where he's concerned." The idiotic Minister shrugged. Severus wished he could get back to work, but Albus had set him the task of distracting the Minister until he himself arrived.

"What amazes me most is the behavior of the dementors... you've really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?"

"No, Minister... by the time I had come 'round they were heading back to their positions at the entrances..."

"Extraordinary. And yet Black, and Harry, and the boy…"

"All unconscious by the time I reached them. I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle."

Severus stopped as Potter opened his eyes wide, glaring up at him.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus strode into the Hospital wing, and right into a storm of shouting. Poppy was shouting at Cornelius, trying to get him to leave, while Harry and Hermione were shouting at both Severus and Cornelius, trying to convince them of the same story that Albus had just heard from the lips of Sirius Black. Personally, he had hoped that Sirius could stay out of Harry's life just a tad longer, but now that he was in it, he needed to stay alive and free for Harry's sake.

"For heaven's sake!" said Madam Pomfrey hysterically as Albus approached. "Is this a hospital wing or not? Headmaster, I must insist!"

"My apologies, Poppy, but I need a word with Mr. Potter and Miss Granger," Albus said calmly. "I have just been talking to Sirius Black…"

"I suppose he's told you the same fairy tale he's planted in the children's' minds?" spat Severus. "Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive…"

"That, indeed, is Black's story," said Albus, surveying Severus closely through his spectacles, urging him with his eyes to leave the matter be for now.

"And does my evidence count for nothing?" snarled Severus. "Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds."

"That was because you were asleep, Professor!" said Hermione earnestly. "You didn't arrive in time to hear…"

"Miss Granger, HOLD YOUR TONGUE!" Severus yelled.

"Now, Snape," said Cornelius, startled, "the young lady is disturbed in her mind, we must make allowances…"

"I would like to speak to Harry and Hermione alone," Albus said again abruptly. "Cornelius, Severus, Poppy… please leave us."

"Headmaster!" sputtered Poppy. "They need treatment, they need rest…"

"This cannot wait," Albus persisted. "I must insist."

Poppy pursed her lips and strode away into her office at the end of the ward, slamming the door behind her. Cornelius consulted the large gold pocket watch dangling from his waistcoat.

"The dementors should have arrived by now," he said. "I'll go and meet them. Dumbledore, I'll see you upstairs."

Cornelius crossed to the door and held it open for Severus, but the Potions Master hadn't moved.

"You surely don't believe a word of Black's story?" Severus whispered, his eyes fixed on Albus' face.

"I wish to speak to Harry and Hermione alone," Albus repeated, wishing that Severus wasn't so narrow minded. Severus took a step toward him.

"Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen." he breathed. "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?"

"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus." Albus affirmed quietly.

Snape turned on his heel and marched through the door Cornelius was still holding. It closed behind them, and Albus turned to Harry and Hermione, after glancing at Undol's unconscious body. Yes, the boy was still out cold, and would not be able to interfere with his plans. Both Harry and Hermione burst into speech at the same time.

"Professor, Black's telling the truth, we saw Pettigrew… he escaped, when Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf…"

"…he's a rat…"

"…Pettigrew's front paw, I mean, finger, he cut it off…"

"…Pettigrew attacked Ron, it wasn't Sirius…"

Albus held up his hand to stem the flood of explanations. "It is your turn to listen, and I beg you will not interrupt me, because there is very little time," he said quietly. "There is not a shred of proof to support Black's story, except your word, and the word of two thirteen-year-old wizards will not convince anybody. A street full of eyewitnesses swore they saw Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself gave evidence to the Ministry that Sirius had been the Potters' Secret Keeper."

"Professor Lupin can tell you…" Harry said, unable to stop himself. Albus shook his head mentally. He liked the boy, but sometimes he could be a little thick.

"Professor Lupin is currently deep in the forest, unable to tell anyone anything. By the time he is human again, it will be too late, Sirius will be worse than dead. I might add that werewolves are so mistrusted by most of our kind that his support will count for very little, and the fact that he and Sirius are old friends…"

"But…" Albus knew it was about time to set his plan into motion, and Harry's desperation to 'save' Sirius would fuel him on, as it had in the past.

"Listen to me, Harry. It is too late, you understand me? You must see that Professor Snape's version of events is far more convincing than yours."

"He hates Sirius," Hermione said desperation in her voice. "All because of some stupid trick Sirius played on him…"

"Sirius has not acted like an innocent man," Albus chided softly, "The attack on the Fat Lady, entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife. Without Pettigrew, alive or dead, we have no chance of overturning Sirius's sentence."

"But you believe us." Harry said, not wondering in the slightest.

"Yes, I do," Albus reassured gently. "But I have no power to make other men see the truth, or to overrule the Minister of Magic..." a lie, of course, he had all the authority needed to stay Sirius' death while they were on school grounds, but Harry and Hermione didn't need to know that.

Harry stared up into Albus' grave face and Albus knew that he felt hopelessly lost, unable to do anything to help. And now was the time put his little scheme into motion, the scheme that will inevitably lead to Harry's destruction of Voldemort.

"What we need," Albus said slowly, and his light blue eyes moved from Harry to Hermione, "is more time."

"But…" Hermione began. And then her eyes became very round. "OH!"

"Now, pay attention," Albus instructed, speaking very low, and very clearly, "Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor; thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember this, both of you: you must not be seen. Miss Granger, you know the law; you know what is at stake... You must not be seen…"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione's mind reeled with the information that Professor Dumbledore was giving her and Harry. He wanted her to use her Time-Turner to save Sirius? The consequences of being caught flashed through her mind, but what else could they do. No one would listen to them; the Minister had already brought the dementors up to kill him. She made up her mind in an instant, they were going to do it, and the Ministry be damned. Dumbledore had turned on his heel and looked back as he reached the door.

"I am going to lock you in. It is…" he consulted his watch, "five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."

"Good luck?" Harry repeated as the door closed behind Dumbledore. "Three turns? What's he talking about? What are we supposed to do?"

But Hermione was already fumbling with the neck of her robes, pulling out the fine chain on which lay the time turner.

"Harry, come here," she said urgently. "Quick!"

Harry moved toward her, completely bewildered. She held the chain out, ready to throw it over both of them. Harry's eyed the time turner suspiciously.

"Here…" she said, throwing the chain around his neck too. "Ready?" she said breathlessly.

"What are we doing?" Harry said, completely lost.

Hermione turned the hourglass over three times.

The dark ward dissolved. They hurtled back in time three hours, one for each turn, and vastness of time and space swirled around them as they fell.

And then Hermione felt solid ground beneath her feet, and everything came into focus again. She was standing next to Harry in the deserted entrance hall and a stream of golden sunlight was falling across the paved floor from the open front doors. Harry looked wildly around at Hermione, the chain of the hourglass cutting into his neck.

"Hermione, what…?"

"In here!" Hermione seized Harry's arm and dragged him across the hall to the door of a broom closet; she opened it, pushed him inside among the buckets and mops, and then slammed the door behind them.

"What… how… Hermione, what happened?"

"We've gone back in time," Hermione whispered, lifting the chain off Harry's neck in the darkness. "Three hours back..."

"But…"

"Shh! Listen! Someone's coming! I think, I think it might be us!" Hermione had her ear pressed against the cupboard door. "Footsteps across the hall... yes, I think it's us going down to Hagrid's!"

"Are you telling me," Harry whispered, "that we're here in this cupboard and we're out there too?"

"Yes," said Hermione, her ear still glued to the cupboard door. "I'm sure it's us. It doesn't sound like more than four people... and we're walking slowly because we're all under the Invisibility Cloak…"

She broke off, still listening intently.

"We've gone down the front steps..."

Hermione sat down on an upturned bucket, ready to wait several minutes for their past selves to get a head start, but Harry wanted a few questions answered.

"Where did you get that hourglass thing?"

So Hermione explain the time turner to him, how she had gotten it on the first day back, and had been using it the entire school year to get to all her classes. She thankfully skipped over the small bits of painful weariness that she had felt from using it so often, or the paranoia that plagued her at the thoughts of someone finding out, or her fear of accidentally encountering herself. But she had a question of her own for Harry, Dumbledore wanted them to go three hours back, specifically, but how would that help Sirius?

Harry's eye brightened, "Buckbeak." He said, "Dumbledore wants us to save Buckbeak and use him to save Sirius, that's why he told us where he was being held…"

"If we manage that without being seen, it'll be a miracle!"

"Well, we've got to try, haven't we?" said Harry. He stood up and pressed his ear against the door. "Doesn't sound like anyone's there... Come on, let's go."

Harry pushed open the closet door. The entrance hall was deserted. As quietly and quickly as they could, they darted out of the closet and down the stone steps. The shadows were already lengthening, the tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest gilded once more with gold.

"If anyone's looking out of the window…" Hermione squeaked, looking up at the castle behind them.

"We'll run for it," said Harry determinedly. "Straight into the forest, all right? We'll have to hide behind a tree or something and keep a lookout…"

"Okay, but we'll go around by the greenhouses!" said Hermione breathlessly. "We need to keep out of sight of Hagrid's front door, or we'll see us! We must be nearly at Hagrid's by now!"

And with that Harry set off at a sprint, Hermione behind him. They tore across the vegetable gardens to the greenhouses, paused for a moment behind them, then set off again, fast as they could, skirting around the Whomping Willow, tearing toward the shelter of the forest...

Safe in the shadows of the trees, Hermione caught up to Harry, panting slightly. "Right, we need to sneak over to Hagrid's… and keep out of sight…"

They made their way silently through the trees, keeping to the very edge of the forest. Then, as they glimpsed the front of Hagrid's house, they heard a knock upon his door. They moved quickly behind a wide oak trunk and peered out from either side. Hagrid had appeared in his doorway, shaking and white, looking around to see who had knocked. Then Harry's voice came out of nowhere. "It's us. We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off."

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered urgently, but he stood back, and then shut the door quickly.

"This is the weirdest thing we've ever done," Harry said fervently.

"You're telling me!" said a new voice. Hermione whipped around, her eyes wide, and she saw Faykan stumbling out of the woods, looking at them with a shocked expression. Already he was looking distant and rather unhappy, which told Hermione that he had already met with Sirius.

"What the hell happened to you two, and where's Ron?" Faykan asked, confusion crossing his face. He looked into Harry's eyes, back to Hermione, and slowly comprehension dawned, "You didn't!" he gasped, turning to Hermione, "What happened? Why did you use the Time-Turner?"

"Wait!" Harry said, "You knew?"

"Of course I knew. It was painfully obvious what was going on Harry, even Ron was starting to notice. But don't change the subject, what happened?"

"You know we can't tell you Faykan," Hermione said, wringing her hands, "Just the fact that you've seen us is bad, all you need to know is that we're going to rescue Buckbeak and Sirius, you need to proceed just as you normally would have."

"Yes," Harry added, "Go with the plan you made with Sirius."

Faykan nodded, and pulled something crystal and translucent out of his pocket, handing it to Harry, "I thought you or Hagrid might need this, but I didn't expect to have to leave you beforehand. If what I think happens, happens, you'll need this." Without another word, Faykan dodged out of sight, changing back into the black fox.

Harry was looking at the glass phial with a half-grin on his face, but Hermione remembered that they needed to rescue Buckbeak. Dragging Harry by the wrist, they made it to the edge of the Pumpkin patch just as the execution party arrived. Together, Hermione and Harry watched the grass flatten in patches around the cabin and heard three pairs of feet retreating. Their past selves, and Ron had gone, but Hermione and Harry hidden in the trees could now hear what was happening inside the cabin through the back door.

"Where is the beast?" came the cold voice of Macnair.

"Out… outside," Hagrid croaked.

Harry pulled his head out of sight as Macnair's face appeared at Hagrid's window, staring out at Buckbeak. Then they heard Fudge.

"We… err, have to read you the official notice of execution, Hagrid. I'll make it quick. And then you and Macnair need to sign it. Macnair, you're supposed to listen too, that's procedure…"

Macnair's face vanished from the window. It was now or never.

"Wait here," Harry whispered to Hermione. "I'll do it."

As Fudge's voice started again, Harry darted out from behind his tree, vaulted the fence into the pumpkin patch, and approached Buckbeak. "It is the decision of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures that the hippogriff Buckbeak, hereafter called the condemned, shall he executed on the sixth of June at sundown…"

Harry approached carefully, bowing while keeping his face turned to the hippogriff. Buckbeak sank to his scaly knees and then stood up again. Harry then began to fumble with the knot of rope tying Buckbeak to the fence.

"...sentenced to execution by beheading, to be carried out by the Committee's appointed executioner, Walden Macnai..."

"Come on, Buckbeak," Harry murmured, "come on, we're going to help you. Quietly... quietly..."

"...as witnessed below. Hagrid, you sign here..."

Harry threw all his weight onto the rope, and Buckbeak slowly got to his feet and trotted along with him.

"Quick! Quick!" Hermione moaned, darting out from behind her tree, seizing the rope too and adding her weight to make Buckbeak move faster.

Harry looked over his shoulder back at Hagrid's, making sure they were hidden.

"Stop!" he whispered to Hermione. "They might hear us…"

Hagrid's back door had opened with a bang. Harry, Hermione, and Buckbeak stood quite still; even the hippogriff seemed to be listening intently. Silence... then…

"Where is it?" said the reedy voice of the Committee member. "Where is the beast?"

"It was tied here!" said the executioner furiously. "I saw it! Just here!"

"How extraordinary," said Professor Dumbledore, with a note of amusement in his voice.

"Beaky!" said Hagrid huskily.

There was a swishing noise, and the thud of an axe. The executioner seemed to have swung it into the fence in anger. And then came the howling, and this time they could hear Hagrid's words through his sobs.

"Gone! Gone! Bless his little beak, he's gone! Musta pulled himself free! Beaky, yeh clever boy!"

Buckbeak started to strain against the rope, trying to get back to Hagrid. Harry and Hermione tightened their grip and dug their heels into the forest floor to stop him.

"Someone untied him!" the executioner was snarling. "We should search the grounds, the forest."

"Macnair, if Buckbeak has indeed been stolen, do you really think the thief will have led him away on foot?" said Dumbledore, still sounding amused. "Search the skies, if you will... Hagrid, I could do with a cup of tea. Or a large brandy."

"O'… o' course, Professor," said Hagrid, who sounded weak with happiness. "Come in, come in... You'll find no small glasses in this house though…"

Harry and Hermione listened closely. They heard footsteps, the soft cursing of the executioner, the snap of the door, and then silence once more.

"Now what?" whispered Harry, looking around.

"We'll have to hide in here," said Hermione, slightly shaken. "We need to wait until they've gone back to the castle. Then we wait until it's safe to fly Buckbeak up to Sirius's window. He won't be there for another couple of hours... Oh, this is going to be difficult..."

She looked nervously over her shoulder into the depths of the forest. The sun was setting now.

"We're going to have to move," said Harry, thinking hard. "We've got to be able to see the Whomping Willow, or we won't know what's going on."

"Okay," said Hermione, getting a firmer grip on Buckbeak's rope. "But we've got to keep out of sight, Harry, remember..."

They moved around the edge of the forest, darkness falling thickly around them, until they were hidden behind a clump of trees through which they could make out the Willow.

"There's Ron!" said Harry suddenly.

Sure enough, their forms were materializing form under the cloak, dashing toward the Whomping Willow. Hermione realized that Faykan, Sirius, and Crookshanks had made a spectacular plan, none of them would have suspected the Willow of hiding the secret passage to the Shrieking Shack, or that Faykan could control the actions of the vicious tree. She reminded herself to ask Faykan how he had controlled it at a later time.

They watched as Sirius bounded forward, and dragged Ron into the passage, followed soon by herself, Harry and Crookshanks.

The moment they disappeared, the tree began to move again. Seconds later, they heard footsteps quite close by. Dumbledore, Macnair, Fudge, and the old Committee member were making their way up to the castle.

"Right after we'd gone down into the passage!" Hermione commented. "If only Dumbledore had come with us..."

"Macnair and Fudge would've come too," said Harry bitterly. "I bet you anything Fudge would've told Macnair to murder Sirius on the spot..."

They watched the four men climb the castle steps and disappear from view. For a few minutes the scene was deserted. Then…

"Here comes Lupin!" said Harry as they saw another figure sprinting down the stone steps and high-tailing it toward the Willow. Hermione looked up at the sky. Clouds were obscuring the moon completely.

They watched Lupin seize a broken branch from the ground and prod the knot on the trunk. The tree stopped fighting, and Lupin, too, disappeared into the gap in its roots.

"If he'd only grabbed the cloak," said Harry. "It's just lying there..."

He turned to Hermione.

"If I just dashed out now and grabbed it, Snape'd never be able to get it and…"

"Harry, we mustn't be seen!"

"How can you stand this?" he asked Hermione fiercely. "Just standing here and watching it happen?" He hesitated. "I'm going to grab the cloak!"

"Harry, no!"

Hermione seized the back of Harry's robes not a moment too soon. Just then, they heard a burst of song. It was Hagrid, making his way up to the castle, singing at the top of his voice, and weaving slightly as he walked. A large bottle was swinging from his hands.

"See?" she whispered in Harry's ear. "See what would have happened? We've got to keep out of sight! No, Buckbeak!"

The hippogriff was making frantic attempts to get to Hagrid again; Harry seized his rope too, straining to hold Buckbeak back. They watched Hagrid meander tipsily up to the castle. He was gone. Buckbeak stopped fighting to get away. His head drooped sadly.

Barely two minutes later, the castle doors flew open yet again, and Snape came charging out of them, running toward the Willow.

Harry's fists clenched as they watched Snape skid to a halt next to the tree, looking around. He grabbed the cloak and held it up.

"Get your filthy hands off it," Harry snarled under his breath. "Shh!"

Snape seized the branch Lupin had used to freeze the tree, prodded the knot, and vanished from view as he put on the cloak.

"So that's it," said Hermione quietly. "We're all down there... and now we've just got to wait until we come back up again..." she sat down to wait after tying Buckbeak to the nearest tree.

"And now we wait," Harry repeated, sitting next to her. Hermione had the sudden urge to tell Harry about Faykan, her suspicions, his feelings for Harry, what she had seen in the _Palantír_ , but she restrained herself. When Faykan was ready, he would tell Harry, and she needn't worry him about her suspicions about his best friend. So she settled for asking him a question.

"Harry, there's something I don't understand... Why didn't the dementors get Sirius? I remember Snape telling Fudge about what he saw, how they were retreating when he arrived, but what happened?"

Harry sat down too. He explained what he'd seen; how, as the nearest dementor had raised the dagger over Harry, someone had sent a Patronus to stop it, but it hadn't been enough, then finally a large silver something had come galloping across the lake and forced the dementors to retreat.

Hermione's mouth was slightly open by the time Harry had finished. "But who conjured it?"

Harry didn't say anything.

"Didn't you see what they looked like?" said Hermione eagerly. "Was it one of the teachers?"

"No," said Harry. "He wasn't a teacher."

"But it must have been a really powerful wizard, to drive all those dementors away... If the Patronus was shining so brightly, didn't it light him up? Couldn't you see…?"

"Yeah, I saw him," said Harry slowly. "But... maybe I imagined it... I wasn't thinking straight... I passed out right afterward..."

"Who did you think it was?"

"I think…" Harry swallowed. "I think it was my dad."

"Harry, your dad's, well… dead," Hermione said quietly.

"I know that," said Harry quickly.

"You think you saw his ghost?"

"I don't know... no... He looked solid..."

Hermione wasn't sure about what Harry thought he had seen, but she was certain that is was not his father. They waiting for almost an hour in awkward silence, and the urge to spill the knowledge she had about Faykan became too much to bear, "Harry…"

"Shh, here we come Hermione." Harry whispered.

Hermione got to here feet right after Harry. Buckbeak raised his head. They saw Lupin, Ron, and Pettigrew clambering awkwardly out of the hole in the roots. Next came Snape, drifting weirdly upward. Next came Harry and Black, and finally Faykan and Hermione. They all began to walk toward the castle.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry's heart was starting to beat very fast. He glanced up at the sky. Any moment now, that cloud was going to move aside and show the moon...

"Harry," Hermione muttered as though she knew exactly what he was thinking, "we've got to stay put. We mustn't be seen. There's nothing we can do..."

"So we're just going to let Pettigrew escape all over again." said Harry quietly.

"How do you expect to find a rat in the dark?" snapped Hermione.

"There's nothing we can do! We came back to help Sirius; we're not supposed to be doing anything else!"

"All right!"

The moon slid out from behind its cloud. They saw the tiny figures across the grounds stop. Then they saw movement…

"There goes Lupin," Hermione whispered. "He's transforming…"

"Hermione!" said Harry suddenly. "We've got to move!"

"We mustn't, I keep telling you…"

"Not to interfere! Lupin's going to chase Faykan and Sirius into the forest, right at us!"

Hermione gasped.

"Quick!" she moaned, dashing to untie Buckbeak. "Quick! Where are we going to go? Where are we going to hide? The dementors wilt be coming any moment…"

"Back to Hagrid's!" Harry said. "It's empty now, come on!"

They ran as fast as they could, Buckbeak cantering along behind them.

They could hear the werewolf howling behind them...

The cabin was in sight; Harry skidded to the door, wrenched it open, and Hermione and Buckbeak flashed past him; Harry threw himself in after them and bolted the door. Fang the boarhound barked loudly.

"Shh, Fang, it's us!" said Hermione, hurrying over and scratching his ears to quiet him.

"That was really close!" she said to Harry.

"Yeah..."

Harry was looking out of the window. It was much harder to see what was going on from here. Buckbeak seemed very happy to find himself back inside Hagrid's house. He lay down in front of the fire, folded his wings contentedly, and seemed ready for a good nap.

"I think I'd better go outside again, you know," said Harry slowly. "I can't see what's going on, we won't know when it's time…"

Hermione looked up. Her expression was suspicious.

"I'm not going to try and interfere," said Harry quickly. "But if we don't see what's going on, how're we going to know when it's time to rescue Sirius?"

"Well... okay, then... I'll wait here with Buckbeak... but Harry, be careful, there's a werewolf out there… and the dementors…"

Harry stepped outside again and edged around the cabin. He could hear yelping in the distance. That meant the dementors were closing in on Sirius... He would be running to him any moment...

Harry stared out toward the lake, his heart doing a kind of drum roll in his chest... Whoever had sent that Patronus would be appearing at any moment...

For a fraction of a second he stood, irresolute, in front of Hagrid's door. You must not be seen. But he didn't want to be seen. He wanted to do the seeing... He had to know... And there were the dementors. They were emerging out of the darkness from every direction, gliding around the edges of the lake... They were moving away from where Harry stood, to the opposite bank... He wouldn't have to get near them... Harry began to run. He had no thought in his head except his father... If it was him... if it really was him... he had to know, had to find out...

The lake was coming nearer and nearer, but there was no sign of anybody. On the opposite bank, he could see tiny glimmers of silver, his own attempts at a Patronus.

There was a bush at the very edge of the water. Harry threw himself behind it, peering desperately through the leaves. On the opposite bank, the glimmers of silver were suddenly extinguished. A terrified excitement shot through him, soon now.

He saw the grey dementor swooping down at him, revealing the cruel, greenish dagger.

" _Expecto Patronum_!" a familiar voice bellowed. A giant silver bird flew directly at the dementor above Harry, pushing it back, swiping it talons and snapping its beak at the cloaked wraith. Harry could make it out this time, a giant eagle. Faykan charged in behind it, directing his Patronus toward the dementors, urging it to protect both Harry and Sirius.

Faykan knelt by the other Harry, checking his pulse. "You cannot have them!" he yelled at the dementors, "Be gone Brenin Llwyd, leave us in peace. Or living or dark undead, I will smite you if you touch them!"

The dementors made new rasping noises, and Harry could heard familiar sounds, reminiscent of Faykan's boggart from so long ago, " _Gû kîbum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha gûm-ishi ashi gurum_ ," their darkness grew as they chanted the same words over and over again, and Faykan screamed as his Patronus died, the silvery light leaving them as the dementors drained it away.

"Come on!" Harry muttered, staring about. "Where are you? Dad, come on…"

Something was burning in his pocket. He pulled out the Phial of Galadriel that Faykan had given him earlier. And then it hit him; he understood. He hadn't seen his father, he had seen himself.

Harry flung himself out from behind the bush and pulled out his wand.

" _EXPECTO PATRONUM_!" he bellowed.

And out of the end of his wand burst, not a shapeless cloud of mist, but a blinding, dazzling, silver animal. He screwed up his eyes, trying to see what it was. It looked like a horse. It was galloping silently away from him, across the black surface of the lake. He saw it lower its head and charge at the swarming dementors... Now it was galloping around and around the black shapes on the ground, and the dementors were falling back, scattering, retreating into the darkness... They were gone.

The Patronus turned. It was cantering back toward Harry across the still surface of the water. It wasn't a horse. It wasn't a unicorn, either. It was a stag. It was shining brightly as the moon above ... it was coming back to him...

It stopped on the bank. Its hooves made no mark on the soft ground as it stared at Harry with its large, silver eyes. Slowly, it bowed its antlered head. And Harry realized... "Prongs," he whispered.

But as his trembling fingertips stretched toward the creature, it vanished.

Harry stood there, hand still outstretched. Then, with a great leap of his heart, he heard hooves behind him he whirled around and saw Hermione dashing toward him, dragging Buckbeak behind her.

"What did you do?" she said fiercely. "You said you were only going to keep a lookout!"

"I just saved everyone from the dementors…" Harry said. "Get behind here, behind this bush, I'll explain.

Hermione listened to what had just happened with her mouth open yet again.

"Did anyone see you?"

"Yes, haven't you been listening? I saw me but I thought I was my dad! It's okay!"

"Harry, I can't believe it... You conjured up a Patronus that drove away all those dementors! That's very, very advanced magic."

Harry held up the phial, still glowing in his left hand, the warmth dancing across his skin, "I knew I could do it. All I needed was the happiness and the confidence."

"Harry, look at Snape!"

Together they peered around the bush at the other bank. Snape was conjuring stretchers and lifting the limp forms of Harry, Faykan, and Black onto them. A fourth stretcher, no doubt bearing Ron, was already floating at his side. Then, wand held out in front of him, he moved them away toward the castle.

"Right, it's nearly time," said Hermione tensely, looking at her watch. "We've got about forty five minutes until Dumbledore locks the door to the hospital wing. We've got to rescue Sirius and get back into the ward before anybody realizes we're missing...

They waited, watching the moving clouds reflected in the lake, while the bush next to them whispered in the breeze. Buckbeak, bored, was ferreting for worms again.

"D' you reckon he's up there yet?" said Harry, checking his watch. He looked up at the castle and began counting the windows to the right of the West Tower.

"Look!" Hermione whispered. "Who's that? Someone's coming back out of the castle!"

Harry stared through the darkness. The man was hurrying across the grounds, toward one of the entrances. Something shiny glinted in his belt.

"Macnair!" said Harry. "The executioner! He's gone to get the dementors! This is it, Hermione…"

Hermione put her hands on Buckbeak's back and Harry gave her a leg up. Then he placed his foot on one of the lower branches of the bush and climbed up in front of her. He pulled Buckbeak's rope back over his neck and tied it to the other side of his collar like reins.

"Ready?" he whispered to Hermione. "You better hold on to me…"

He nudged Buckbeak's sides with his heels.

Buckbeak soared straight into the dark air. Harry gripped his flanks with his knees, feeling the great wings rising powerfully beneath them. Hermione was holding Harry very tight around the waist; he could hear her muttering, "Oh, no… I don't like this oh; I really don't like this…"

Harry urged Buckbeak forward. They were gliding quietly toward the upper floors of the castle... Harry pulled hard on the left hand side of the rope, and Buckbeak turned. Harry was trying to count the windows flashing past…

"Whoa!" he said, pulling backward as hard as he could.

Buckbeak slowed down and they found themselves at a stop, unless you counted the fact that they kept rising up and down several feet as the hippogriff beat his wings to remain airborne.

"He's there!" Harry said, spotting Sirius as they rose up beside the window. He reached out, and as Buckbeak's wings fell, was able to tap sharply on the glass.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Sirius was wondering how painful the dementor's kiss could be when there was a tapping on the window nearest him. He looked up, and his jaw dropped as he saw Harry bobbing up and down outside the seventh floor window.

"Stand back!" the girl behind Harry called to him, and she took out her wand, still gripping the back of Harry's robes with her left hand.

" _Alohomora_!"

The window sprang open.

"How… how…?" Sirius said weakly, staring at the hippogriff they were riding.

"Get on… there's not much time," said Harry, gripping the hippogriff firmly on either side of his sleek neck to hold him steady. "You've got to get out of here, the dementors are coming, Macnair's gone to get them."

Sirius didn't need telling twice. He placed a hand on either side of the window frame and heaved his head and shoulders out of it. It was very lucky he was so thin. In seconds, he had managed to fling one leg over the creatures back and pull himself onto the hippogriff behind the girl.

"Okay, Buckbeak, up!" said Harry, shaking the rope. "Up to the tower, come on."

The hippogriff gave one sweep of its mighty wings and they were soaring upward again, high as the top of the West Tower. Buckbeak landed with a clatter on the battlements, and Harry and Hermione slid off him at once.

"Sirius, you'd better go, quick," Harry panted. "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment, they'll find out you're gone."

Buckbeak pawed the ground, tossing his sharp head.

"What happened to the other boys? Ron and Faykan?" croaked Sirius.

"They're going to be okay. Still out of it, but Madam Pomfrey says they'll be fine. Quick… go…"

But Sirius stared down at Harry, "How can I ever thank…"

"GO!" Harry and the girl cried together.

Sirius wheeled Buckbeak around, facing the open sky.

"We'll see each other again," he said. "You are… truly your father's son, Harry..."

He squeezed Buckbeak's sides with his heels. Harry and his friend jumped back as the enormous wings rose once more... The hippogriff took off into the air, soaring up into the clouds and away from Hogwarts...

 _Gû kîbum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha gûm-ishi ashi gurum. : No life in coldness, in darkness. Here in void, only death._

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned**

 _Honestly, was it not particularly clear that Middle Earth was earth? In both canon LotR and in this fic? I can't be the only one who finds it odd that I keep getting asked the same inane question. Still, letting that go... Moving on, the chapter was relatively kept as it was originally made, I personally felt a bit of attachment to it just being Harry and Hermione traveling back in time, and for past Faykan finding them. it was amusing I think. Once again the edit for the grey dementor shows up, He'll play an important role later on (Likely Book 6 or 7) when things start coming together with the three canons and their interlaced plots. Until next time everyone!_

 _ _~F__


	43. Y3-Epilogue: Looking Forward…

_And with this, we conclude Book 3... great things ahead, and I personally am excited for all the new changes to start in earnest with what I've touched upon in the next book. Many thanks to those who continue to review, pointing out small errors to fix. it is very useful for me to notice the trends that I have with my writing in order to continue to improve, especially with my ambition to publish a series of novels in the future. ~F_

 **Epilogue**

 **Looking Forward…**

"Harry!"

Hermione was tugging at his sleeve, staring at her watch. "We've got exactly ten minutes to get back down to the hospital wing without anybody seeing us, before Dumbledore locks the door…"

"Okay," said Harry, wrenching his gaze from the sky, "let's go..." They slipped through the doorway behind them and down a tightly spiraling stone staircase. As they reached the bottom of it, they heard voices. They flattened themselves against the wall and listened. It sounded like Fudge and Snape. They were walking quickly along the corridor at the foot of the staircase.

"...only hope Dumbledore's not going to make difficulties," Snape was saying. "The Kiss will be performed immediately?"

"As soon as Macnair returns with the dementors... This whole Black affair has been highly embarrassing. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to informing the Daily Prophet that we've got him at last... I daresay they'll want to interview you, Snape... and once young Harry's back in his right mind, I expect he'll want to tell the Prophet exactly how you saved him..." Fudge replied

Harry clenched his teeth. He caught a glimpse of Snape's smirk as he and Fudge passed their hiding place. Their footsteps died away. Harry and Hermione waited a few moments to make sure they'd really gone, then started to run in the opposite direction, down one staircase, then another, along a new corridor.

"Hermione… what'll happen… if we don't get back inside before Dumbledore locks the door?" Harry panted.

"I don't want to think about it!" Hermione moaned, checking her watch again. "One minute!"

They had reached the end of the corridor with the hospital wing entrance. "Okay… I can hear Dumbledore," said Hermione tensely. "Come on, Harry!"

They crept along the corridor. The door opened. Dumbledore's back appeared.

"I am going to lock you in," they heard him saying. "It is five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."

Dumbledore backed out of the room, closed the door, and took out his wand to magically lock it. Panicking, Harry and Hermione ran forward.

Dumbledore looked up, and a wide smile appeared under the long silver mustache. "Well?" he said quietly.

"We did it!" said Harry breathlessly. "Sirius has gone, on Buckbeak..." Dumbledore beamed at them.

"Well done. I think…" He listened intently for any sound within the hospital wing. "Yes, I think you've gone too, get inside… I'll lock you in."

Harry and Hermione slipped back inside the dormitory. It was empty except for Faykan and Ron, who were still lying motionless in their beds. As the lock clicked behind them, Harry and Hermione crept back to their own beds, Hermione tucking the Time-Turner back under her robes. A moment later, Madam Pomfrey came striding back out of her office.

"Did I hear the Headmaster leaving? Am I allowed to look after my patients now?"

She was in a very bad mood. Harry and Hermione thought it best to accept their chocolate quietly. Madam Pomfrey stood over them, making sure they ate it.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus sighed as he settled himself into his chair the next day. The night Sirius 'escaped' was one he wouldn't forget soon. After Harry and Hermione returned and he locked them inside the Hospital wing, Severus had stormed down from Sirius' makeshift cell and demanded that Harry had had something to do with Black's escape.

Albus chuckled softly, as in hindsight, Severus was perfectly correct in his suspicion. But thankfully, the usage of the Time-Turner was never revealed, and poor Severus was made out to look like a fool in front of the Minister, costing him his Order of Merlin. A small sacrifice, but Albus thought it was worth Sirius' freedom for the moment.

As Albus put a Lemon Drop into his mouth and began to enjoy the sour flavoring of the Muggle sweet, there was a knock at his door. "Enter," he said. Professor Trelawney opened the door, her shawls flowing around her as she strode up to the Headmaster's desk, "Good morning Sybill." Albus said smiling.

"Hello Professor," Sybill responded, "I am sorry to disturb you this early, but the fates have forewarned me of the terrible accident that has landed my most prized student in the hospital wing, and I felt it prudent to ask as to his welfare, since Madam Pomfrey wouldn't allow me to see the poor boy for myself." Albus raised one eyebrow; it was not often that Sybill favored any students, even those that fawned after her. If she was concerned, then the boy in question must actually have talent in divination, if not the actual gift.

"I do believe you refer to Mr. Undol, if I am correct Sybill?" Albus asked. She nodded. "Well, he did have a small run in with the dementors last night, something related to the escape of Sirius Black no doubt, but Professor Snape had just perfected a potion that will have him up and about in a day or two at the latest."

Personally, Albus wasn't too happy about the boy being so quickly revived, he had hoped have more time to influence Harry before Faykan came back into the picture. They boy was indeed becoming a nuisance to Albus' plans.

Sybill had stopped speaking, but Albus didn't notice until her voice deepened, " _The sleeper with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord has stirred… awaiting freedom bought with sacrifice from those whom he loves… at his side is the Slayer of Darkness who shall love and serve him, and together they shall wield power that time has forgotten, power the Dark Lord will envy above all else… and he shall lead men with the battle cry of phoenix song… for need shall drive him, and the earth shall quake at the power of his command. He shall walk the land till the cry of the gulls he shall hear; for the sea shall call him… the sleeper has begun to awaken_ …" Albus' jaw dropped, a new prophecy concerning Harry, clearly, and Voldemort, the Dark Lord, and… someone else, this 'Slayer of Darkness'…

As Sybill muttered something about falling asleep and departed, Albus pondered the possible meaning of what he had heard. If it meant what he thought, he was going to have to step in and help Harry more directly than he had been. And then there was the fact that to do this, Faykan would have to be out of the picture permanently. 'Well,' Albus thought, 'the Triwizard Tournament is planned to be played at Hogwarts next year…' and with that notion, Albus Dumbledore began to plan and plot.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The last day of term was very important for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco. Not only were their exam results returned, they had passed everything, but a note was sent down to them at breakfast saying that Faykan had woken up at last. Together the four third years dashed up to the Hospital wing to see the black haired boy sitting up, eating what looked like a pound of chocolate, supervised closely by Madam Pomfrey. When he saw them all, Faykan broke into a wide grin.

They all dashed to his side, crushing him with their hugs, causing Madam Pomfrey to tut about disturbing patents that needed rest, but they ignored her, and she left them in peace. Harry had been worried that Faykan might not wake up this time, he was out much longer than the last time he encountered dementors. When they finally released him, Harry saw that his best friend had tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, and Harry slugged him in the arm.

"You git," he said, "you did what you knew was the right thing to do. How could I be angry at you for that?" Harry hugged him again, hoping that he could squeeze the stupidity out of him while he was at it. He held on for longer than was probably considered appropriate, but he didn't care, he was too happy right now. When he finally released Faykan, the boy was flushed slightly, and everyone else was staring. "What?" Harry said, causing both Ron and Draco to burst out laughing.

They began to fill Faykan in on what he had missed over the last few days, namely that Professor Lupin had resigned, due to someone leaking the information that he was a werewolf, and that he had returned Harry's cloak and the marauder's map, saying that since he was no longer their teacher, he had no hesitation in returning the items to their rightful owner. They also had to inform Draco on what he has missed out on when they finally had encountered Sirius, and Draco practically had a fit right in the Hospital Wing, so great was his shock.

"Pity," Faykan commented when they had finished, "Lupin was the best Professor we ever had…" they all smiled weakly, because it was the truth.

"Harry," Faykan said abruptly, "Something's different, let me see," he stared into Harry's eyes for a moment, then smiled again, "the block on your magic has a new, bigger crack in it; magic is seeping out faster now. You should be able to do more than before now that the fracture is larger." This was good news indeed.

As the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station the next morning, Hermione gave Harry, Faykan, Draco, and Ron some surprising news.

"I went to see Professor McGonagall this morning, just before breakfast. I've decided to drop Muggle Studies."

"But you passed your exam with three hundred and twenty percent!" said Ron.

"I know," sighed Hermione, "but I can't stand another year like this one. That Time-Turner, it was driving me mad. I've handed it in. Without Muggle Studies and Divination, I'll be able to have a normal schedule again."

"I still can't believe you didn't tell us about it," said Draco grumpily. "We're supposed to be your friends."

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone," said Hermione severely. She looked around at Faykan, who was watching Hogwarts disappear from view behind a mountain.

Harry wondered sadly where Sirius had run off to, "Oh, cheer up, Harry!" said Draco.

"I'm okay," said Harry quickly, "Just thinking about the holidays."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about them too," said Ron. "Harry, you and Faykan have got to come and stay with us. I'll fix it up with Mum and Dad, and we'll come get you or something, it's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! How about it? Come and stay, and we'll go and see it! Dad can usually get tickets from work."

This proposal had the effect of cheering Harry up a great deal.

Feeling considerably more cheerful, Harry joined his friends in several games of Exploding Snap, and when the witch with the tea cart arrived, he bought himself a very large lunch, though nothing with chocolate in it.

But it was late in the afternoon before the thing that made him truly happy turned up...

"Harry," said Hermione suddenly, peering over his shoulder. "What's that thing outside your window?"

Harry turned to look outside. Something very small and gray was bobbing in and out of sight beyond the glass. He stood up for a better look and saw that it was a tiny owl, carrying a letter that was much too big for it. The owl was so small, in fact, that it kept tumbling over in the air, buffeted this way and that in the train's slipstream. Harry quickly pulled down the window, stretched out his arm, and caught it. It felt like a very fluffy Snitch. He brought it carefully inside. The owl dropped its letter onto Harry's seat and began zooming around their compartment, apparently very pleased with itself for accomplishing its task.

Hedwig clicked her beak with a sort of dignified disapproval. Crookshanks sat up in his seat, following the owl with his great yellow eyes. Ron, noticing this, snatched the owl safely out of harm's way.

Harry picked up the letter. It was addressed to him. He ripped open the letter, and shouted, "It's from Sirius!"

"What?" said Ron, Draco and Hermione excitedly, "Read it aloud!"

' _Dear Harry,_

 _I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl post. Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this owl falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about his reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job._

 _I believe the dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted. I would also like to apologize for the fright I think I gave you that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you._

 _I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable. Trust your friends Harry, they'll lead you right._

 _If ever you need me, send word. Your owl will find me. I'll write again soon._

 _Sirius_ '

Harry looked eagerly inside the envelope. There was another piece of parchment in there. He read it through quickly and felt suddenly as warm and contented as though he'd swallowed a bottle of hot butterbeer in one gulp.

' _I, Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather, hereby give him permission to visit Hogsmeade on weekends_.'

"That'll be good enough for Dumbledore!" said Harry happily. He looked back at Sirius's letter. "Hang on, there's a PS..."

' _I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat_.'

Ron's eyes widened. The minute owl was still hooting excitedly. "Keep him?" he said uncertainly. He looked closely at the owl for a moment; then, to Harry's and Hermione's great surprise, he held him out for Crookshanks to sniff.

"What do you reckon?" Ron asked the cat, "Definitely an owl?" Crookshanks purred.

"That's good enough for me," said Ron happily. "He's mine."

Harry read and reread the letter from Sirius all the way back into King's Cross station. It was still clutched tightly in his hand as he, Faykan, Ron, and Hermione stepped back through the barrier of platform nine and three-quarters. Draco had to wait for his parents on the platform, and he bid them farewell from there. "Harry," Faykan said, "If you don't care, I wish to stay with you this summer, this year had tired me out." he rubbed absently at the scar on his chest.

"Of course you can stay!" Harry exclaimed in delight! With that, Faykan grabbed Harry's arm, leading him into a shadowed alleyway, and apparated them back to Privet Drive.

 **To Be Continued…**

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You have been Warned!**

 _Short epilogue, I know, and very little changes as we gear up for the next book, I am incredibly excited for it, and cant wait to reveal. hopefully with the end of the semester this next week i'll have more time to pour into the last 2 books worth of editing, and then if I can accomplish that we can up the speed of posting, which I know will make everyone happier! Until then friends! ~F_


	44. Y4-Prologue: Scar Dreams

_I already know, yes this chapter is really short, and due to the constrains of the shift in scope (Time jumping forward as is wont in every book transition canonically) it is unavoidable. Still, we've hit book four and the beginning of the changes and addition of the third crossover within the story! very exciting! thanks to those who reviewed the previous chapter, and hurray for last chapter of the year! We'll keep going on strong into 2019. Joy to you all, and Happy New Year! ~F_

 **New Player Year 4**

 **The Gathering Dark**

 **Prologue**

 **Scar Dreams**

Harry gasped as he sat up; his scar burning beneath his fingers like someone had just pressed white hot metal to his skin. He reached out to his bedside table, and was met halfway by the nudge of another hand, holding his glasses out for him. "Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry looked across the darkness at his best friend, Faykan Undol. Faykan was kneeling on his bed, having been awoken by Harry's gasp of pain, and had crossed the tiny space between their beds to investigate. "My scar…" Harry replied quietly, "It's burning..." Despite the Dursleys being utterly terrified of Faykan, whose true name they still were unaware of, they were still prone to complaint if awoken earlier than they liked, and Harry preferred to keep the animosity at low levels.

"Like back in first year?" Faykan asked, edging closer to Harry across the bed, pressing his cool hand against Harry's burning head; it relieved the pain slightly. Harry turned the light on the far bedside table on and placed his glasses on his nose, which caused Faykan's face to come into better focus.

The lines around his mouth were deep with concern as he studied the cursed scare on Harry's forehead. Harry would probably have turned away from anyone but him, even Madam Pomfrey back at Hogwarts, rather than allow them to inspect it. But he always had a soft spot for Faykan, a certain allowance that his friend used to his advantage most shamelessly.

Harry smirked as Faykan stroked the small patch of stubble that had begun to grow around his face over the last month in thought. "Do you remember what you were dreaming about when it began to burn?" he asked. Harry tried to recall the dream, it had seemed so real at the time… he concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember…

"Partially," he replied as the images returned. Faykan nodded, accepting that Harry had lost some of the information upon waking, and turned to sit next to him on Harry's bed, "I think, you should write to Sirius about this. He asked to be informed if anything important happened, and if your scar burned it can't be anything good."

Harry nodded, he had been thinking the same thing himself, running through a list people he could ask for advise, as Faykan had already affirmed his lack of knowledge on the subject. Harry leapt up from the bed, hurried across the room, and sat down at his desk; he pulled a piece of parchment toward him, loaded his eagle-feather quill with ink, wrote ' _Dear Sirius_ ,' then paused, wondering how best to phrase his problem, still marveling at the fact that he hadn't thought of Sirius straight away like Faykan had. But then, perhaps it wasn't so surprising… after all, he had only found out that Sirius was his godfather two months ago.

Harry dipped his quill and decided to just write out what he was thinking, and forget wording for the moment.

' _Dear Sirius,_

 _Thanks for your last letter. That bird was enormous; it could hardly get through my window. Things are the same as usual here. Dudley's diet isn't going too well. My aunt found him smuggling doughnuts into his room yesterday. They told him they'd have to cut his pocket money if he keeps doing it, so he got really angry and chucked his PlayStation out of the window. That's a sort of computer thing you can play games on. Bit stupid really, now he hasn't even got Mega-Mutilation Part Three to take his mind off things._

 _I'm okay; mainly because the Dursleys are terrified that Faykan might turn them all into bats if I ask him to._

 _A weird thing happened this morning, though. My scar hurt again. Last time that happened it was because Voldemort was at Hogwarts. But I don't reckon he can be anywhere near me now, can he? Do you know if curse scars sometimes hurt years afterward?_

 _I'll send this with Hedwig when she gets back; she's off hunting at the moment._

 _Say hello to Buckbeak for me._

 _Faykan sends his greetings._

 _Harry'_

Harry folded the parchment and laid it aside on the desk, ready for when Hedwig returned, and returned to bed. Faykan had already climbed back onto his but was still watching as Harry settled down under the covers. Without asking, Faykan began softly singing in elvish, weaving the soft air-like tones of the language into a sweet spell, dulling Harry's senses and carrying him back into the realms of dreams, thoughts of sea birds and large white ships dancing through his mind.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have been Warned!**

 _As I mentioned previously, the inclusion of The Dark is Rising Sequence will begin in this book, but not hit full swing until 5-7. lots of family time has been happening here, so I have not as of yet gotten back into editing just yet, but I am at the beginning of book 6, so there will be no interruption in the posting schedule as presently constituted, although I hope to get back into it with the beginning of the semester when the workload is significantly lighter than the previous few weeks. Until next time everyone! ~F_


	45. Y4-C1: Once More Unto the Burrow

_And we're back, with the next chapter! Many thanks to those who gave feedback on the story thus far, less so to people pitching story "challenges," across multiple of my stories... yeah not the best way to maker people want to even consider doing anything to facilitate you... but I digress. R &R, until next time. ~F_

 **Chapter One**

 **Once More Unto the Burrow**

Severus Snape glanced for what felt like the hundredth time at his map, he was certain that this was the correct location, but it just felt… wrong. The air was so very close, and the heat was almost stifling this time of the summer, but Severus had learned that this forest in Germany was the closest location to Hogwarts that still had the herb _Athelas_ growing wild.

And then there was the magic, this forest was full of it. Wild and ancient magic, magic that stirred as Severus moved through the trees. It was almost like the forest was _watching_ , judging if he was friend or foe. Thankfully, Severus had gathered several fresh plants, ready to be transported back to the school and watched over by Professor Sprout, who was as excited as Severus to have the rare and exotic plant to tend to. Severus hoped to perfect his restorative potion with fresh leaves of the sweet smelling herb, and to see what other properties the plant possessed.

Suddenly, Severus felt a pulse of magic from the direction of Britain, powerful and yet… familiar… and then came the word-like song, flowing over the trees like a summer breeze, " _korko en' fanghorn lema a' amin ar' ethir ten' amin!_ " Almost in response, the sounds of wings came, as thousands of black ravens took flight, cawing madly as they flew, spiraling together and as one large black mass heading to the north, dancing up and out of Severus' sight. The man just stood in amazement, wondering who or what had the power to command these creatures from such a long distance.

He had managed to place the tenor of the voice, and what he was reminded of by the magic of this place. There was no possibility, but Albus would still want to know that this place reminded Severus strongly of Undol, both of them.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry woke to Dobby's bright voice Sunday morning, "Wake up Master Harry, Dobby is serving breakfast now."

Harry yawned as he pulled his glasses on from the bedside table. Dobby, his house elf, was levitating two trays with enormous bowls of porridge and tall glasses of juice on them. As Harry sat up, Dobby lowered his tray onto his lap, and waited patiently for Faykan to rouse himself. After several minutes, Dobby sighed, "Dobby was hoping that Dobby didn't have to do this…" he snapped his fingers, causing Faykan to be catapulted out of the bed with an indignant shriek and onto the floor across the room, landing with a grunt. Harry sniggered as Faykan glared at the elf, and grudgingly returned to sit on the covers of his transfigured bed, taking the tray from Dobby as he went.

Dobby disapparated to prepare the rest of their things for the arrival of the Weasleys, who had sent Harry a letter via Ron's tiny Scops owl, whose name Ron had said was Pig. Both Harry and Faykan found very hard to imagine the owl deserving. The letter described that Mr. Weasley had managed to acquire tickets for the Quidditch World Cup, and that both Faykan and Harry were invited, as well as telling the Dursleys the time and date that they were going to come to collect the two boys, and that they would return the following summer.

Uncle Vernon had very little choice in the matter, as between Faykan's presence and the concept of Harry having a wanted murderer as a godfather, he couldn't very well say no to allowing Harry to attend the World Cup. Faykan settled down with his porridge, muttering angrily about insane elves, even as Harry wondered how the Weasleys would come to get them, they couldn't well drive, as they had lost their car two years ago. Harry figured they might use a Ministry car like they had last year.

After he finished eating, Harry sent Hedwig off with his letter to Sirius, after adding that he was going to the World Cup and that he would be at the Weasleys for the rest of the summer.

By twelve o'clock, the atmosphere inside number four, Privet Drive was extremely tense, or at least it was for the Muggle inhabitants. The imminent arrival at their house of an assortment of wizards was making the Dursleys uptight and irritable. Thankfully, Faykan had the insight to distract Harry with a post birthday present; Harry gleefully opened the wrapped package to reveal a long curved sword, which he recognized as one of the many prized elven blades from Faykan's collection. It was called _Hadhafang_ , and Faykan had said that it once belonged to the great Elrond Half-elven, the grandfather of all wizard kind.

"Wow, are you sure you want me to have this Fay?" Harry asked, and his friend nodded, a smile splitting his face. Harry lovingly ran a hand down the side of the blade, remembering the weight and feel of the blade from when he sparred with both Faykan and Draco last year. He truly loved this blade; it felt comfortable with him, like an extension of his arm.

"Thank you so much Faykan." Harry said, tears filling his eyes as he half-hugged his friend.

Fay returned the embrace and ruffled Harry's hair affectionately, "You're most welcome," he said.

They then played several games of Exploding Snap with cards that Faykan had bought, only because Harry refused to play Wizard chess with Faykan anymore. Harry was resigned to the fact that he was pants at chess, and felt it wasn't worth playing unless there was literally nothing left to do. Five o'clock came and went. Dudley was sent up to Harry's room by Uncle Vernon to say that the Weasleys were late, but neither Harry nor Faykan were paying attention, so focused were they on their game.

"What are you two doing up here?" Uncle Vernon yelled as he burst in several minutes later.

"Playing Exploding Snap," Faykan said, slapping his wand down on a pair of knaves, causing them to fly back into the self shuffling deck. A small counter flipped over another point to Faykan.

"Playing… What?" Vernon said, confused, and still very irritated.

"We're playing the Wizard version of Snap. It's the same, except that when you make a mistake, the cards literally blow up in your face." Faykan explain, not taking his eyes off the game. He was only up by several points, and Harry was closing the gap rapidly. They were both soot faced as they had in their eagerness made several errors.

Uncle Vernon's face turned purple, but he kept back any outburst, as Harry accidentally jabbed at a mismatched pair, and the cards exploded, covering Harry's face in more soot. "Well," Uncle Vernon said, still rather angrily, "Well, those people who are supposed to pick you two up are not here, and its half past."

"And, what are we supposed to do about it?" Faykan said cheekily. Uncle Vernon glared at the back of Faykan's head, and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. They could hear him complaining loudly with Aunt Petunia in the living room below them.

"No consideration at all..."

"We might've had an engagement..."

"Maybe they think they'll get invited to dinner if they're late..."

"Well, they most certainly won't be," said Uncle Vernon, and Harry heard him stand up and start pacing the living room. "They'll take those boys and go; there'll be no hanging around. That's if they're coming at all. Probably mistaken the day. I daresay their kind don't set much store by punctuality. Either that or they drive some tin pot car that's broken d… AAAAAAAARRRRRGH!"

Both Harry and Faykan jumped up and dashed downstairs, the game forgotten. From the other side of the living room door came the sounds of the three Dursleys scrambling, panic-stricken, across the room. Next moment Dudley came flying into the hall, looking terrified.

"What happened?" said Harry. "What's the matter?"

But Dudley simply waddled as fast as he could into the kitchen, completely ignoring the two wizard boys. Faykan burst into the living room, Harry on his heels.

Loud banging and scrapings were coming from behind the Dursleys' boarded up fireplace, which had a fake coal fire plugged in front of it.

"What is it?" gasped Aunt Petunia, who had backed into the wall and was staring, terrified, toward the fire. "What is it, Vernon?"

But they were left in doubt barely a second longer. Voices could be heard from inside the blocked fireplace.

"Ouch! Fred, no, go back, go back, there's been some kind of mistake… tell George not to… OUCH! George, no, there's no room, go back quickly and tell Ron…"

"Maybe Harry can hear us, Dad… maybe he'll be able to let us out…"

There was a loud hammering of fists on the boards behind the electric fire.

"Harry? Harry, can you hear us?"

The Dursleys rounded on Harry like a pair of angry wolverines.

"What is this?" growled Uncle Vernon. "What's going on?"

"They… they've tried to get here by Floo powder," said Harry, fighting a mad desire to laugh. "They can travel by fire, only you've blocked the fireplace… hang on,"

He approached the fireplace and called through the boards. "Mr. Weasley? Can you hear me?"

The hammering stopped. Somebody inside the chimney piece said, "Shh!"

"Mr. Weasley, it's Harry... the fireplace has been blocked up. You won't be able to get through there."

"Damn!" said Mr. Weasley's voice. "What on earth did they want to block up the fireplace for?"

"They've got an electric fire," Harry explained.

"Really?" said Mr. Weasley's voice excitedly. "Eclectic, you say? With a plug? Gracious, I must see that... Let's think... ouch, Ron!"

Ron's voice now joined the others. "What are we doing here? Has something gone wrong?"

"Oh no, Ron," came Fred's voice, very sarcastically. "No, this is exactly where we wanted to end up."

"Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here," said George, whose voice sounded muffled, as though he was squashed against the wall.

"Boys, boys..." said Mr. Weasley vaguely. "I'm trying to think what to do... Yes... only way… Stand back, Harry."

Harry retreated to the sofa. Uncle Vernon, however, moved forward.

"Wait a moment!" he bellowed at the fire. "What exactly are you going to…?"

BANG.

The electric fire shot across the room as the boarded up fireplace burst outward, expelling Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ron in a cloud of rubble and loose chippings. Aunt Petunia shrieked and fell backward over the coffee table; Uncle Vernon caught her before she hit the floor, and gaped, speechless, at the Weasleys.

"That's better," panted Mr. Weasley, brushing dust from his long green robes and straightening his glasses. "Ah, you must be Harry's aunt and uncle!"

Tall, thin, and balding, he moved toward Uncle Vernon, his hand outstretched, but Uncle Vernon backed away several paces, dragging Aunt Petunia. Words utterly failed Uncle Vernon. His best suit was covered in white dust, which had settled in his hair and mustache and made him look as though he had just aged thirty years.

"Err… yes, sorry about that," said Mr. Weasley, lowering his hand and looking over his shoulder at the blasted fireplace. "It's entirely my fault. It just didn't occur to me that we wouldn't be able to get out at the other end. I had your fireplace connected to the Floo Network, you see… just for an afternoon, you know, so we could get the boys. Muggle fireplaces aren't supposed to be connected, strictly speaking, but I've got a useful contact at the Floo Regulation Panel and he fixed it for me. I can put it right in a jiffy, though, don't worry. I'll light a fire to send the boys back, and then I can repair your fireplace before I Disapparate."

Harry was ready to bet that the Dursleys hadn't understood a single word of this. They were still gaping at Mr. Weasley, thunderstruck. Aunt Petunia staggered upright again and hid behind Uncle Vernon.

"Hello, Faykan, Harry!" said Mr. Weasley brightly. "Got your trunks ready?"

"They're upstairs," said Harry, grinning back, "Dobby, please bring our trunks to the living room for us." A loud crack sounded, and Dobby appeared, bowing low to Harry with both trunks on either side of him. "Here you are Master Harry." He said happily. Harry thanked him, which sent the elf into a fit of giddiness.

"Ah, right," said Mr. Weasley. "Better get cracking then."

He pushed up the sleeves of his robes and took out his wand. Harry saw the Dursleys draw back against the wall as one.

" _Incendio!_ " said Mr. Weasley, pointing his wand at the hole in the wall behind him.

Flames rose at once in the fireplace, crackling merrily as though they had been burning for hours. Mr. Weasley took a small drawstring bag from his pocket, untied it, took a pinch of the powder inside, and threw it onto the flames, which turned emerald green and roared higher than ever.

"Off you go then, Fred," said Mr. Weasley. "And take Faykan's trunk."

"Coming," Fred said, hefting the trunk and carrying it into the fireplace with a call of, "The Burrow!" Aunt Petunia gave a little shuddering gasp. There was a whooshing sound, and Fred vanished.

"Right then, George," said Mr. Weasley, "you and Harry's trunk."

After George had gone through, Mr. Weasley sent Ron, followed by Faykan, who smiled impishly at the Dursleys before entering the floo. Now Harry and Mr. Weasley alone remained.

"Well... bye then," Harry said to the Dursleys.

They didn't say anything at all. Harry moved toward the fire, but just as he reached the edge of the hearth, Mr. Weasley put out a hand and held him back. He was looking at the Dursleys in amazement.

"Harry said goodbye to you," he said. "Didn't you hear him?"

"It doesn't matter," Harry muttered to Mr. Weasley. "Honestly, I don't care." Mr. Weasley did not remove his hand from Harry's shoulder.

"You aren't going to see your nephew till next summer," he said to Uncle Vernon in mild indignation. "Surely you're going to say goodbye?"

Uncle Vernon's face worked furiously. The idea of being taught consideration by a man who had just blasted away half his living room wall, seemed to be causing him intense suffering. But Mr. Weasley's wand was still in his hand, and Uncle Vernon's tiny eyes darted to it once, before he said, very resentfully, "Goodbye, then."

"See you," said Harry, stepping forward into the green flames, which felt pleasantly like warm breath. "The Burrow," he said, and whirled away.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was talking with Ginny when they heard the whoosh of the floo, signaling that the boys were coming back with Harry and Faykan. Hermione arrived in the kitchen to find Faykan stepping out of the fireplace gracefully after Ron, just to be accosted by the twins.

"Hey Faykan," Fred started.

"Our favorite little _fox_ ," George said

"Would you like to try some toffee?" Fred finished, pulling a bag and offering it to Fay.

"Um…" Faykan said slowly, considering his options. Always a wise move with the twins, Hermione thought to herself. "I think I'll pass for now."

Both red haired boys frowned slightly, then turned to offer the bag to Ron, "How about you ickle Ronniekins, care for a toffee?" they said in unison.

"Since when did you offer me anything?" Ron said suspiciously, further deflating the twins.

"Fine, if you don't want free sweets, well take them elsewhere." Fred said, taking the bag back and moving with George out of the kitchen. Just at that time, Harry came through the floo. Bill and Charlie, Ron eldest brothers, came into the kitchen and introduced themselves to Faykan and Harry, and finally Mr. Weasley apparated into the house, "Well, that could have gone better," he muttered to himself, and Hermione wondered what had gone wrong at Harry's relative's house.

Faykan caught her eye, "Don't ask, you really don't want to know," he said before turning to Harry and Ron, "Come on, let's take our trunks up to your room Ron."

And together Hermione and the three boys, followed by Ginny, set up the stairs carrying the two trunks, Ginny and Ron chattering to Harry and Faykan about the twin's newest idea, opening a joke shop called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and Mrs. Weasleys continual efforts to dissuade them from wasting their time, as she saw it. Hermione watched the expressions of Faykan as he listened to Ron's telling of the row between the twins and his mother, especially the way his eyes consistently darted back to Harry. Hermione was certain that the boy had a massive crush on his best friend, but sadly, the boy was far too unsure of himself to reveal his true feelings to Harry, or anyone else for that matter. Hermione only knew because of how perceptive she was.

Just then a door on the second landing opened, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a very annoyed expression.

"Hi, Percy," said Harry.

"Oh hello, Harry," said Percy. "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know I've got a report to finish for the office, and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."

"We're not thundering, "said Ron irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic."

"What are you working on?" asked Harry politely.

"A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," said Percy smugly. "We're trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin - leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost three percent a year…"

"That'll change the world, that report will," said Ron. "Front page of the Daily Prophet, I expect, cauldron leaks."

Percy went slightly pink. "You might sneer, Ron," he said heatedly, "but unless some sort of international law is imposed we might well find the market flooded with flimsy, shallow-bottomed products that seriously endanger…"

"Yeah, yeah, all right," said Ron and he started off upstairs again. Percy slammed his bedroom door shut.

They all followed Ron up to his room, situated at the top of the house, just under the attic. Ron's walls were covered in orange posters of his favorite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons. Faykan shook his head sadly, causing his hair to be tossed around his face slightly.

Hermione noticed that the boy's face had started to elongate, and that he was beginning to grow facial hair. Hermione was reminded immediately of her terrible vision she had seen the previous year, in which a red-eyed Faykan had unleashed horrors upon the citizens of London, and himself attack and murdered Albus Dumbledore.

She shook herself, struggling to banish the thought, as Ron yelled at his tiny Scops owl, "Shut up, Pig," as he squeezed through two of the four beds in the room, "Fred and George are in here with us, because Bill and Charlie are in their room," he told Faykan and Harry, "Percy gets to keep his room because he has to work."

"Err… why are you calling that owl Pig?" Harry asked Ron.

"Because he's being stupid," said Ginny, "Its proper name is Pigwidgeon."

"Yeah, and that's not a stupid name at all," said Ron sarcastically. "Ginny named him," he explained to Harry. "She reckons it's sweet. And I tried to change it, but it was too late, he won't answer to anything else. So now he's Pig. I've got to keep him up here because he annoys Errol and Hermes. He annoys me too, come to that.

Pigwidgeon zoomed happily around his cage, hooting shrilly.

Ron hesitated then quietly added, "We also don't have enough room for one more bed in here, so…"

Hermione saw both Harry and Faykan raise their eyebrows, comprehending what Ron had implied, and then they both flushed slightly. Ginny laughed, "What's wrong, nervous about sleeping in one bed boys?" she teased, causing them both their faces to glow redder still. Hermione found the whole situation slightly ironic, but restrained herself from laughing as well.

"Anyways," Harry said, trying to change the subject, "Where's Crookshanks?" he asked, turning to Hermione. Honestly, it was a poor attempt, but Hermione decided to humor Harry, "Out in the garden, I expect," she said. "He liked chasing gnomes. He's never seen any before."

"Percy's enjoying work, then?" Harry continued, looking now at Ron. Hermione felt that this was a better means of redirecting attention from the fact that he was going to share a bed with his best friend for a while.

"Enjoying it?" said Ron darkly. "I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him onto the subject of his boss. According to Mr. Crouch… As I was saying to Mr. Crouch… Mr. Crouch is of the opinion… Mr. Crouch was telling me… They'll be announcing their engagement any day now." They all laughed.

"Have you heard from…?" Ron began, but Hermione glared at him and he fell silent. Discussing Sirius in front of Ginny was defiantly not a good idea. Nobody but themselves, Dumbledore, and Draco knew about how Sirius had escaped, or believed in his innocence.

"So, we got the trunks up here, lets go see if you mum wants help with dinner?" she said to cover the awkward moment, as Ginny was looking curiously at Ron.

"Yeah, all right," Ron replied. The five of the left Ron's room and went back downstairs to find Mrs. Weasley alone in the kitchen, bustling about happily. "Oh, hello there dears," she said as they entered, striding over to hug Harry and Faykan, "Welcome, welcome. We're eating out in the garden. There's just not room for eleven people in here." She then assigned Hermione and Ginny to carry plates outside, and Harry, Ron and Faykan to taking knives and forks out also, where Bill, Charlie, Fred and George were setting up tables.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry, Ron and Faykan had just left the kitchen when they heard Mrs. Weasley complain loudly about one of Fred and George's prank wands that they had left out.

They had only gone a few paces when Hermione's bandy-legged ginger cat, Crookshanks, came pelting out of the garden, bottle-brush tail held high in the air, chasing what looked like a muddy potato on legs. Harry recognized it instantly as a gnome. Meanwhile, a very loud crashing noise was coming from the other side of the house.

The source of the commotion was revealed as they entered the garden, and saw that Bill and Charlie both had their wands out, and they were making two battered old tables fly high above the lawn, smashing into each other, each attempting to knock the others out of the air. Fred and George were cheering; Ginny was laughing, and Hermione was hovering near the hedge, apparently torn between amusement and anxiety.

Bill's table caught Charlie's with a huge bang and knocked one of its legs off. There was a clatter from overhead, and they all looked up to see Percy's head poking out of a window on the second floor.

"Will you keep it down?!" he bellowed.

"Sorry, Perce," said Bill, grinning. "How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"

"Very badly," said Percy peevishly, and he slammed the window shut. Chuckling, Bill and Charlie directed the tables safely onto the grass, end to end, and then, with a flick of his wand, Bill reattached the table leg and conjured tablecloths from nowhere.

By seven o'clock, the two tables were groaning under dishes and dishes of Mrs. Weasley's excellent cooking, and the nine Weasleys, Harry, Faykan and Hermione were settling themselves down to eat beneath a clear, deep-blue sky. Everything looked delicious, and Harry happily took third helpings of everything in reach, which pleased Mrs. Weasley exceedingly.

At the far end of the table, Percy was telling his father all about his report on cauldron bottoms.

"I've told Mr. Crouch that I'll have it ready by Tuesday," Percy was saying pompously. "That's a bit sooner than he expected it, but I like to keep on top of things. I think he'll be grateful I've done it in good time, I mean, its extremely busy in our department just now, what with all the arrangements for the World Cup. We're just not getting the support we need from the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Ludo Bagman…"

"I like Ludo," said Mr. Weasley mildly. "He was the one who got us such good tickets for the Cup. I did him a bit of a favor: His brother, Otto, got into a spot of trouble, a lawnmower with unnatural powers, I smoothed the whole thing over."

"Oh Bagman's likable enough, of course," said Percy dismissively, "but how he ever got to be Head of Department... when I compare him to Mr. Crouch! I can't see Mr. Crouch losing a member of our department and not trying to find out what's happened to them. You realize Bertha Jorkins has been missing for over a month now? Went on holiday to Albania and never came back?"

Faykan stopped eating at that comment, and listened with great interest to the rest of their conversation, though his attention went unnoticed by all but Harry, who didn't have the slightest clue as to why he cared.

"Yes, I was asking Ludo about that," said Mr. Weasley, frowning. "He says Bertha's gotten lost plenty of times before now, though must say, if it was someone in my department, I'd be worried..."

"Oh Bertha's hopeless, all right," said Percy. "I hear she's been shunted from department to department for years, much more trouble than she's worth... but all the same, Bagman ought to be trying to find her. Mr. Crouch has been taking a personal interest, she worked in our department at one time, you know, and I think Mr. Crouch was quite fond of her, but Bagman just keeps laughing and saying she probably misread the map and ended up in Australia instead of Albania. However," Percy heaved an impressive sigh and took a deep swig of elderflower wine, "we've got quite enough on our plates at the Department of International Magical Cooperation without trying to find members of other departments too. As you know, we've got another big event to organize right after the World Cup."

Percy cleared his throat significantly and looked down toward the end of the table where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting. "You know the one I'm talking about, father," He raised his voice slightly, "the top-secret one."

Ron rolled his eyes and muttered to Harry, Faykan and Hermione, "He's been trying to get us to ask what that event is ever since he started work... Probably an exhibition of thick-bottomed cauldrons…"

Faykan scoffed loudly at that, causing Percy to look over with disdain. Faykan caught his eye and Harry saw him stare for a few seconds, finally blinking and turning back to them, a wide grin on his face. Percy shook his head in mild confused and returned to speaking with Mr. Weasley.

Harry continued eating, listening absently to both Mrs. Weasley, who was trying to convince Bill to cut his hair, even though it was only as long as Faykan's, and Charlie, Fred, and George discussing the World Cup at the far end of the table. They felt certain that Ireland was going to win, because of their superior team, even though Bulgaria had a spectacular seeker, Victor Krum.

Mr. Weasley conjured up candles to light the darkening garden before they had their homemade strawberry ice cream, and by the time they had finished, moths were fluttering low over the table, and the warm air was perfumed with the smells of grass and honeysuckle. Harry was feeling extremely well fed and at peace with the world as he watched several gnomes sprinting through the rosebushes, laughing madly and closely pursued by Crookshanks.

Ron looked carefully up the table to check that the rest of the family were all busy talking, then he said very quietly to Harry, "So, have you heard from Sirius lately?"

Hermione looked around, listening closely, while Faykan simply leaned forward, looking around Harry at Ron.

"Yeah," said Harry softly, "twice. He sounds okay. I wrote to him yesterday. He might write back while I'm here."

He suddenly remembered the reason he had written to Sirius, and for a moment was on the verge of telling Ron and Hermione about his scar hurting again, and about the dream that had awoken him and Faykan... but he really didn't want to worry them just now, not when he himself was feeling so happy and peaceful.

"Look at the time," Mrs. Weasley said suddenly, checking her wristwatch. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get to the Cup. Harry, Faykan, if you leave your school lists out, I'll get your things for you tomorrow in Diagon Alley. I'm getting everyone else's. There might not be time after the World Cup; the match went on for five days last time."

"Wow! Hope it does this time!" said Harry enthusiastically.

"Well, I certainly don't," said Percy sanctimoniously. "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."

"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" said Fred.

"That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" said Percy, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!"

"It was," Fred whispered to Harry and Faykan as they got up from the table. "We sent it."

 _korko en' fanghorn lema a' amin ar' ethir ten' amin : crows of fanghorn journey to me and spy for me_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _Seriously, irritating people going around multiple of my stories with overly wordy and specific story challenges that are clearly not crossovers that I would ever deal with... people baffle me sometimes in their level of reasoning. But I digress... Truth be told, the chapter runs fairly canon for the time being of the chapter, more or less setting up for later on. But that is to be expected with the beginning of the next leg, which was once a separated book... Until Next time_


	46. Y4-C2: The Quidditch World Cup Finals

_Many thanks to those who sent messages and reviewed! Was touched by some of the feedback and behind the scene things that some readers have done based on my recommendations. The time draws near to where I can really crank out the rest of the edits (books 6 and 7) as the Veneficus Trilogy is drawing to a close in the writing stage. once that is done, i will have significantly more time to edit, and once the edits are done, HP:AoM will transition to a once a week update, and I will start work on a new project, non-fanfiction related. This likely means little to those who do not read my other stories (Shame on you... JK) but in due time Stormreaver will be the only story updating, while I commence work on something significantly more expansive. But i will elaborate on that at a later date, when the ball starts rolling more. Until later, please enjoy the next chapter!_

 **Chapter Two**

 **The Quidditch World Cup Finals**

Harry felt as though he had barely lain down to sleep in Ron's room, Faykan curled beside him, when they were being shaken awake by Mrs. Weasley.

"Time to go boys, wake up." She whispered gently, moving away to wake Ron.

Harry felt around for his glasses and accidentally caught Faykan in the face with his elbow, causing him to grunt angrily in pain. They had been so close to each other, Harry was surprised he hadn't felt Faykan's breath on him in the night. Harry pulled on his glasses, and both he and Faykan sat up. It was still dark outside. Ron muttered indistinctly as his mother roused him, while at the foot of his bed, Harry saw two large, disheveled shapes emerging from tangles of blankets.

"S' time already?" Said Faykan, rubbing his face where Harry had elbowed him.

They all dressed in silence, too tired to talk, then, still yawning and stretching, the five boys made their way downstairs into the kitchen.

Mrs. Weasley was stirring the contents of a large pot on the stove, while Mr. Weasley was sitting at the table, checking a sheaf of large parchment tickets. He looked up as the boys entered and spread his arms so that they could see his clothes more clearly. He was wearing what appeared to be a golfing sweater and a very old pair of jeans, slightly too big for him and held up with a thick leather belt.

"What d'you think?" he asked anxiously. "We're supposed to go incognito; do I look like a Muggle, Harry?"

"Yeah," said Harry, smiling, "very good."

"Where're Bill and Charlie and Per-Per-Percy?" said George, failing to stifle a huge yawn.

"Well, they're Apparating, aren't they?" said Mrs. Weasley, heaving the large pot over to the table and starting to ladle porridge into bowls. "So they can have a bit of a lie-in."

Harry knew that Apparating meant disappearing from one place and reappearing almost instantly in another, and had even done it several times with Faykan.

"So they're still in bed?" said Fred grumpily, pulling his bowl of porridge toward him. "Why can't we Apparate too?"

"Because you're not of age and you haven't passed your test," snapped Mrs. Weasley. "And where have those girls got to?"

She bustled out of the kitchen and they heard her climbing the stairs.

"You have to pass a test to Apparate?" Harry asked, confused. Faykan had apparated loads of time, and never once had he mentioned having to pass a test. Then again, Faykan didn't mention many things about his life, if he could avoid it.

"Oh yes," said Mr. Weasley, tucking the tickets safely into the back pocket of his jeans. "The Department of Magical Transportation had to fine a couple of people the other day for Apparating without a license. It's not easy, Apparition, and when it's not done property it can lead to nasty complications. This pair I'm talking about went and splinched themselves."

Everyone around the table except Harry winced.

"Err, splinched?" Harry asked.

Faykan explained that when someone botches Apparition, they sometimes leave parts of themselves behind, know at Splinching, adding that it was very painful and could potentially be lethal.

"Were they okay?" he asked, startled.

"Oh yes," said Mr. Weasley matter-of-factly. "But they got a heavy fine, and I don't think they'll be trying it again in a hurry. You don't mess around with Apparition. There are plenty of adult wizards who don't bother with it. Prefer brooms; slower, but safer."

There were footsteps down the passageway and Hermione and Ginny came into the kitchen, both looking pale and drowsy.

"Why do we have to be up so early?" Ginny said, rubbing her eyes and sitting down at the table.

"We've got a bit of a walk," said Mr. Weasley.

"Walk?" said Harry. "What, are we walking to the World Cup?"

"No, no, that's miles away," said Mr. Weasley, smiling. "We only need to walk a short way. It's just that it's very difficult for a large number of wizards to congregate without attracting Muggle attention. We have to be very careful about how we travel at the best of times, and on a huge occasion like the Quidditch World Cup..."

"George!" said Mrs. Weasley sharply, and they all jumped.

"What?" asked George in an innocent tone that deceived no one.

"What is that in your pocket?" Mrs. Weasley demanded.

"Nothing!" George protested, moving to escape out the front door.

"Don't you lie to me!" Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at George's pocket and said, " _Accio!_ "

Several small, brightly colored objects zoomed out of George's pocket; he made a grab for them but missed, and they sped right into Mrs. Weasley's outstretched hand.

"We told you to destroy them!" said Mrs. Weasley furiously, holding up what looked like a toffee. "We told you to get rid of the lot! Empty your pockets… go on, both of you!"

It was an unpleasant scene; the twins had evidently been trying to smuggle as many of the strange toffees out of the house as possible, and it was only by using her Summoning Charm that Mrs. Weasley managed to find them all.

" _Accio! Accio! Accio!_ " she shouted, and toffees zoomed from all sorts of unlikely places, including the lining of George's jacket and the turn-ups of Fred's jeans.

"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted at his mother as she threw the toffees away.

"Oh a fine way to spend six months!" she shrieked. "No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!"

All in all, the atmosphere was not very friendly as they took their departure. Mrs. Weasley was still glowering as she kissed Mr. Weasley on the cheek, though not nearly as much as the twins, who had each hoisted their rucksacks onto their backs and walked out without a word to her.

"Well, have a lovely time," said Mrs. Weasley, "and behave yourselves," she called after the twins' retreating backs, but they did not look back or answer. "I'll send Bill, Charlie, and Percy along around midday," Mrs. Weasley said to Mr. Weasley, as he, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny set off across the dark yard after Fred and George.

It was chilly and the moon was still out. Only a dull, greenish tinge along the horizon to their right showed that daybreak was drawing closer. Harry, having been thinking about thousands of wizards speeding toward the Quidditch World Cup, decided to ask Faykan about it, "So, how is everyone getting to the World Cup without the Muggles noticing?"

"Easy," he replied, "Apparition for those who can, and by Portkey for those who can't. You remember the item we took to get to Malfoy Manor last Christmas? That was a Portkey. Allows for large numbers of wizard to travel long distances, and they can be timed to go off, or set to react to the first touch, or a command phrase. Very handy items,"

"Oh…" Harry said.

They trudged down the dark, dank lane toward the village, the silence broken only by their footsteps. The sky lightened very slowly as they made their way through the village, its inky blackness diluting to deepest blue. Harry's hands and feet were freezing. Mr. Weasley kept checking his watch.

They didn't have breath to spare for talking as they began to climb Stoatshead Hill, stumbling occasionally in hidden rabbit holes, slipping on thick black tuffets of grass. Each breath Harry took was sharp in his chest and his legs were starting to seize up when, at last, his feet found level ground.

"Whew," panted Mr. Weasley, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his sweater. "Well, we've made good time, we've got ten minutes."

Hermione came over the crest of the hill last, clutching a stitch in her side. "Now we just need the Portkey," said Mr. Weasley, replacing his glasses and squinting around at the ground. "It won't be big... Come on..."

They spread out, searching. They had only been at it for a couple of minutes, however, when a shout rent the still air. "Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it." Two tall figures were silhouetted against the starry sky on the other side of the hilltop.

"Amos!" said Mr. Weasley, smiling as he strode over to the man who had shouted. The rest of them followed.

Mr. Weasley was shaking hands with a ruddy-faced wizard with a scrubby brown beard, who was holding a moldy-looking old boot in his other hand.

"This is Amos Diggory, everyone," said Mr. Weasley. "He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. And I think you know his son, Cedric?"

Cedric Diggory was an extremely handsome boy of around seventeen. He was Captain and Seeker of the Hufflepuff House Quidditch team at Hogwarts.

"Hi," said Cedric, looking around at them all.

Everybody said hi back except Faykan, who was watching what looked like a large black cloud sailing toward them. Cedric saw where he was looking and turned, "Isn't that odd," he said, "Hey Dad, what is that?"

Now everyone turned to look, "A cloud?" Mr. Diggory answered unsure. "It seems to be moving way to fast for a cloud." Mr. Weasley said, just as they heard the sound of cawing in the distance, growing louder.

"Birds?" Harry asked, as the large forms of ravens soared over them, heading northward, cawing loudly.

"Extraordinary," Mr. Diggory said, "I've never seen ravens act like that before."

"Those were not ordinary ravens," Faykan said, more to himself than anyone else as he watched the birds intently, "Those were Crebain, from Dunland and Fanghorn."

Everyone looked at him in confusion, and Faykan flushed slightly at their scrutiny, "Its something I read about…" he muttered weakly.

Mr. Weasley was the first to recover, "Well, it's about time, we'd better get ready, just place a finger on the portkey,"

With difficulty, owing to their bulky backpacks, the ten of them crowded around the old boot held out by Amos Diggory.

They all stood there, in a tight circle, as a chill breeze swept over the hilltop. Nobody spoke. It suddenly occurred to Harry how odd this would look if a Muggle were to walk up here now ... ten people, two of them grown men, clutching this manky old boot in the semidarkness, waiting...

"Three…" muttered Mr. Weasley, one eye still on his watch, two... one…"

It happened immediately: Harry felt the pull of a hook just behind his navel had been suddenly jerked irresistibly forward. His feet left the ground; he could feel

Ron and Faykan on either side of him, their shoulders banging into his; they were all speeding forward in a howl of wind and swirling color; his forefinger was stuck to the boot as though it was pulling him magnetically onward and then…

His feet slammed into the ground; Ron staggered into him and he fell over; the

Portkey hit the ground near his head with a heavy thud.

Harry looked up. Mr. Weasley, Mr. Diggory, Faykan and Cedric were still standing, though looking very windswept; everybody else was on the ground.

"Seven past five from Stoatshead Hill," said a voice.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione pulled herself from the ground, glancing around to see who had spoken. They had arrived on what appeared to be a deserted stretch of misty moor. In front of them was a pair of tired and grumpy-looking wizards, one of whom was holding a large gold watch, the other a thick roll of parchment and a quill. Both were dressed as Muggles, though very inexpertly: The man with the watch wore a tweed suit with thigh-length galoshes; his colleague, a kilt and a poncho.

"Morning, Basil," said Mr. Weasley, picking up the boot and handing it to the kilted wizard, who threw it into a large box of used Portkeys beside him; Hermione noticed an old newspaper, an empty drinks can, and a punctured football among the items.

"Hello there, Arthur," said Basil wearily. "Not on duty, eh? It's all right for some... We've been here all night... You'd better get out of the way; we've got a big party coming in from the Black Forest at five fifteen. Hang on, I'll find your campsite... Weasley... Weasley..." He consulted his parchment list. "About a quarter of a mile's walk over there, first field you come to."

"Thanks, Basil," said Mr. Weasley, and he beckoned everyone to follow him.

After reaching their designated camp ground they set up a pair of seemingly Muggle tents, which turned out to be much bigger inside than out, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Faykan were commissioned to fetch water, then finally help light the fire, as Mr. Weasley had no idea how to go about it the Muggle way.

Faykan grumbled the entire time about not being able to use magic, which Hermione did find slightly silly, because not only was everyone else doing it, but any Muggles that noticed would just be Obliviated regardless. But she surmised that as a Ministry worker, Mr. Weasley had to follow the agreed upon rules, even if no one else heeded them.

At last they got the fire lit, though it was at least another hour before it was hot enough to cook anything. There was plenty to watch while they waited, however. Their tent seemed to be pitched right alongside a kind of thoroughfare to the field, and Ministry members kept hurrying up and down it, greeting Mr. Weasley cordially as they passed.

Mr. Weasley kept up a running commentary, mainly for Harry's and Hermione's benefit; his own children knew too much about the Ministry to be greatly interested. They saw the Head of the Goblin Liaison Office, Cuthbert Mockridge, a Committee member of Experimental Charms, Gilbert Wimple, an Obliviator named Arnold Peasegood. And two Unspeakables named Bode and Croaker, who looked directly at Faykan as they passed, before hurrying away and chatting excitedly to themselves. Hermione only heard a catch of something before they passed: the word "Old one…"

A little while later, Ludo Bagman himself strode toward their tents. "Ahoy there!" Bagman called happily. He was walking as though he had springs attached to the balls of his feet and was plainly in a state of wild excitement.

"Arthur, old man," he puffed as he reached the campfire, "what a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night coming... and hardly a hiccough in the arrangements... Not much for me to do!"

Behind him, a group of haggard-looking Ministry wizards rushed past, pointing at the distant evidence of some sort of a magical fire that was sending violet sparks twenty feet into the air.

Percy hurried forward with his hand outstretched. Apparently his disapproval of the way Ludo Bagman ran his department did not prevent him from wanting to make a good impression.

"Ah, yes," said Mr. Weasley, grinning, "this is my son Percy. He's just started at the Ministry, and this is Fred… no, George, sorry, that's Fred, Bill, Charlie, Ron, my daughter, Ginny and Ron's friends, Hermione Granger, Faykan Undol and Harry Potter." Bagman did the smallest of double takes when he heard Harry's name, and his eyes performed the familiar flick upward to the scar on Harry's forehead. Hermione smiled as Faykan rolled his eyes.

"Everyone," Mr. Weasley continued, "this is Ludo Bagman, you know who he is, it's thanks to him we've got such good tickets…"

Bagman beamed and waved his hand as if to say it had been nothing. He then proceeded to, of all things; ask for wagers on the match. Hermione was rather affronted at that, but said nothing. She had learned that it simply did no good to try and get between people and Quidditch. Mr. Weasley seemed to dislike the idea of betting on the match, but wagered one Galleon on Ireland to win. Fred and George, however, felt different. They bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, and three Knuts that Ireland won, but Krum got the Snitch.

Mr. Bagman and Mr. Weasley argued a bit about whether Fred and George should be allowed to bet, but Bagman won in the end, and exchanged the twin's gold for a slip of parchment. They then discussed Mr. Crouch and Bertha Jorkins, which perked both Faykan's and Percy's interests…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

A sense of excitement rose like a palpable cloud over the campsite as the afternoon wore on. By dusk, the still summer air itself seemed to be quivering with anticipation, and as darkness spread like a curtain over the thousands of waiting wizards, the last vestiges of pretence disappeared: the Ministry seemed to have bowed to the inevitable and stopped fighting the signs of blatant magic now breaking out everywhere.

Salesmen were Apparating every few feet, carrying trays and pushing carts full of extraordinary merchandise. There were luminous rosettes, green for Ireland, red for Bulgaria, which were squealing the names of the players, pointed green hats bedecked with dancing shamrocks, Bulgarian scarves adorned with lions that really roared, flags from both countries that played their national anthems as they were waved; there were tiny models of Firebolts that really flew, and collectible figures of famous players, which strolled across the palm of your hand, preening themselves.

"Been saving my pocket money all summer for this," Ron told Harry as they, Faykan and Hermione strolled through the salesmen, buying souvenirs. Though Ron purchased a dancing shamrock hat and a large green rosette, he also bought a small figure of Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker. The miniature Krum walked backward and forward over Ron's hand, scowling up at the green rosette above him.

"Wow, look at these!" said Harry, hurrying over to a cart piled high with what looked like brass binoculars, except that they were covered with all sorts of weird knobs and dials.

"Omnioculars," said the sales-wizard eagerly. "You can replay action ... slow everything down ... and they flash up a play-by-play breakdown if you need it. Bargain! Ten Galleons each."

"Wish I hadn't bought this now," said Ron, gesturing at his dancing shamrock hat and gazing longingly at the Omnioculars.

"Four pairs," said Harry firmly to the wizard.

"No… don't bother," said Ron, going red. He was always touchy about the fact that Harry, who had inherited a small fortune from his parents, and Faykan had much more money than he did.

"You won't be getting anything for Christmas," Harry told him, thrusting Omnioculars into his, Faykan's and Hermione's hands. "For about ten years, mind."

"Fair enough," said Ron, grinning.

"Ooh, thanks, Harry," said Hermione. "And I'll get us some programs, look…" Their money bags considerably lighter, they went back to the tents. Bill, Charlie, and Ginny were all sporting green rosettes too, and Mr. Weasley was carrying an Irish flag. Fred and George had no souvenirs as they had given Bagman all their gold.

And then a deep, booming gong sounded somewhere beyond the woods, and at once, green and red lanterns blazed into life in the trees, lighting a path to the field.

"It's time!" said Mr. Weasley, looking as excited as any of them. "Come on, let's go!"Harry

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was excited for the World Cup Finals, not that he would allow such emotion to show with both of his parents there with him, but his heart felt as though it wanted to leap right out of his chest.

"…ah, and here's Lucius!" said Fudge as they entered the Top Box. Draco's father had gotten a personal invitation from the Minister for a rather generous contribution to St. Mungo's. Draco saw it for what it really was: a bribe. But, as horrible as some of the things his father did, Lucius was still his father and Draco loved him, even if they rarely showed it to each other.

"Ah, Fudge," said Lucius, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister of Magic. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa, or our son Draco?" Draco took the time to glance at the other people in the Top box.

To his surprise, not only were all the Weasleys in attendance, but Harry, Hermione and Faykan. They had all turned as the Malfoy family entered, and Draco saw the younger members nod at him in greeting. The youngest girl, Ginny if he remembered her name correctly from Ron, flushed slightly as she saw him, and turned back to watch the stadium, causing Hermione to grin at him from her seat next to the red haired girl. Draco raised his eyebrows slightly, and Hermione winked.

"Good lord Arthur," Lucius said softly to Mr. Weasley. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much?"

Mr. Weasley just smiled slightly as he ignored Lucius.

Thankfully, Ludo Bagman finally entered the box, forestalling any possibly confrontation between the two men. Draco sighed slightly as he took his seat.

"Everyone ready?" he said, his round face gleaming like a great, excited Edam. "Minister, ready to go?"

"Ready when you are, Ludo," said Fudge comfortably.

Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it at his own throat, and said " _Sonorus!_ " and then spoke over the roar of sound that was now filling the packed stadium; his voice echoed over them, booming into every corner of the stands.

"Ladies and gentlemen... welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty second Quidditch World Cup!"

The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message ( _Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, A Risk With Every Mouthful!_ ) and now showed ' _BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0._ '

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce... the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

The right hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.

Draco lean forward in his seat expectantly as hundreds of Veela glided onto the field. As they began to dance, Draco felt himself slide into the bliss of their control, but his father's arm on his shoulder coaxed him back to reality. Glancing over at his friends, Draco saw that Harry and Ron were completely entranced by the creatures.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Faykan said to him, as both Harry and Ron stood shakily from their seats. They looked like they were going to jump from the box. Harry had started to swing one leg over the wall when the Veela stopped to angry yells from the crowd.

Draco hid a grin as Faykan tugged Harry back into his seat, amidst Hermione's tutting about boys.

"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air... for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, and split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light. After the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands.

Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it "Excellent!" yelled Ron as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Draco realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.

Draco smiled to himself as he saw Ron scrounging the gold off the ground and shoving a fistful into Harry's hands, didn't he know that leprechaun gold vanished after a few hours?

Bagman started introducing the two teams, naming the players off as they sped into the air. Draco sat back to see what would be the talk of the next few months, or until the event that was happening at Hogwarts this year. After all, the Triwizard Tournament was being revived for the first time in over two hundred years, which would prove to be big news.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

"Oh I am glad I'm not on duty," muttered Mr. Weasley sleepily as the boys all changed into pajamas and climbed into their bunks. "I wouldn't fancy having to go and tell the Irish they've got to stop celebrating."

The Irish had won the World Cup, despite Victor Krum getting the Snitch, just as Fred and George had bet upon. The twins hadn't stopped grinning all night about it, mentioning that they had 'big plans' for the gold. Even Mr. Weasley didn't want to ask what the plans were.

Harry, who was on a top bunk above Faykan, lay staring up at the canvas ceiling of the tent, watching the glow of an occasional leprechaun lantern flying overhead, picturing in his mind the exciting moves he had seen in the game. He was itching to get back to Hogwarts and try out some of the moves he had seen both seekers perform, especially the Wronski Feint…

Harry never knew if he actually dropped off to sleep that night, his fantasies of flying like Krum might well have slipped into actual dreams, but all he knew was that quite suddenly, Mr. Weasley was shouting at them all.

"Get up! Ron, Faykan, Harry, come on now, get up, this is urgent!"

Harry sat up quickly and the top of his head hit canvas.

"S' matter?" he said.

Dimly, he could tell that something was wrong. The noises in the campsite had changed. The singing had stopped. He could hear screams, and the sound of people running. He slipped down from the bunk and reached for his clothes, but Mr. Weasley, who had pulled on his jeans over his own pajamas, said, "No time, Harry, just grab a jacket and get outside, quickly!"

Harry did as he was told and hurried out of the tent, Ron and Faykan at his heels.

By the light of the few fires that were still burning, he could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire. Loud jeering, roars of laughter, and drunken yells were drifting toward them; then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene.

A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field. Harry squinted at them... They didn't seem to have faces... Then he realized that their heads were hooded and their faces masked.

High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.

More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Once or twice Harry saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.

"Those bastards…" Faykan said, pulling out his wand and advancing a few steps toward the group of masked wizards, but Ron caught him, "there's nothing you can do mate." He said, struggling to hold Faykan, who was writhing, straining to free himself.

Hermione and Ginny came hurrying toward them, pulling coats over their nightdresses, with Mr. Weasley right behind them. At the same moment, Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boys' tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves rolled up and their wands out.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You lot - get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

"I can fight!" Faykan called to him, "No!" Mr. Weasley said fiercely. Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers; Mr. Weasley tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The crowd of masked wizards was coming ever closer.

"C'mon," said Fred, grabbing Ginny's hand and starting to pull her toward the wood. Hermione, George, Ron and Harry followed, the latter two pulling Faykan by his jacket as he struggled to follow Mr. Weasley.

Despite Faykan finally being taller than Harry, he and Ron's combined strength proved too much for Faykan, and they were able to force him against one of the outer trees and hold him in place. "Faykan, stop, Mr. Weasley said for us to remain here." Harry cried, but Faykan refused to listen. Ron finally slapped Faykan across the face to get his attention, and finally the boy returned to his senses. "Sorry." He muttered as they made their way into the woods.

The colored lanterns that had lit the path to the stadium had been extinguished. Dark figures were blundering through the trees; children were crying; anxious shouts and panicked voices were reverberating around them in the cold night air. Harry felt himself being pushed hither and thither by people whose faces he could not see. Then he heard Ron yell with pain.

"What happened?" said Hermione anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Harry walked into her. "Ron, where are you? Oh this is stupid, _lumos_!"

She illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path. Ron was lying sprawled on the ground.

"Tripped over a tree root," he said angrily, getting to his feet again.

Harry looked around. Fred, George, and Ginny were nowhere to be seen, though the path was packed with plenty of other people, all looking nervously over their shoulders toward the commotion back at the campsite. A huddle of teenagers in pajamas was arguing vociferously a little way along the path. When they saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione, a girl with thick curly hair turned and said quickly, "Oü est Madame Maxime? Nous l'avons perdue…"

"Err, what?" said Ron.

"Oh..." The girl who had spoken turned her back on him, and as they walked on they distinctly heard her say, "Ogwarts."

"Beauxbatons," muttered Hermione.

"Sorry?" said Harry.

"They must go to Beauxbatons," said Hermione. "You know... Beauxbatons Academy of Magic... I read about it in ' _An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe_ '."

"Oh…" Harry said. He had never heard of there being other wizarding schools, but he reasoned that there must be.

"Fred and George can't have gone that far," said Faykan, lighting his wand like Hermione's, and staring into the gloom. Harry pulled out his from his holster as well, while Ron dug around in his pockets. "Ah, no, I don't believe it… I've lost my wand!" he exclaimed after a minute.

"You're kidding," Harry replied. Faykan and Hermione raised their wand high, spreading the beams farther on the ground; Harry and Ron looked around, but Ron's wand was nowhere to be seen.

"Hopefully you just left it in the tent," Faykan offered, reassuringly.

"Yeah," Ron said hopelessly, "maybe…"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

A rustling noise nearby made all three of them jump. Hermione peered around, trying to find the source of the noise. A small creature with an overly large head was fighting its way out of a clump of bushes nearby. It was moving in a most peculiar fashion, apparently with great difficulty; it was as though someone invisible were trying to hold it back.

"There is bad wizards about!" the creature, that Hermione recognized as a House elf, squeaked distractedly as it leaned forward and labored to keep running. "People high… high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!"

And it disappeared into the trees on the other side of the path, panting and squeaking as it fought the force that was restraining her.

"What's up with that?" said Ron, looking curiously after Winky. "Why can't it run properly?"

"Bet you that house elf didn't ask permission to hide," said Harry.

"You know, house elves get a very raw deal!" said Hermione indignantly. "It's slavery, that's what it is! Why doesn't anyone do something about it?"

"Well, the elves are happy, aren't they?" Ron said. "That's what they like, being bossed around…"

"It's people like you, Ron," Hermione began, starting to get rather angry, "who prop up rotten and unjust systems, just because they're too lazy to…"

Another loud bang echoed from the edge of the wood.

"This isn't the time or place for this," Faykan said, cutting them both off, "let's keep moving."

They followed the dark path deeper into the wood, still keeping an eye out for Fred, George, and Ginny. They passed a group of goblins who were cackling over a sack of gold that they had undoubtedly won betting on the match, and who seemed quite unperturbed by the trouble at the campsite. Farther still along the path, they walked into a patch of silvery light, and when they looked through the trees, they saw three tall and beautiful Veela standing in a clearing, surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.

"I pull down about a hundred sacks of Galleons a year!" one of them shouted. "I'm a dragon killer for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures."

"No, you're not!" yelled his friend. "You're a dishwasher at the Leaky Cauldron... but I'm a vampire hunter, I've killed about ninety so far…"

A third young wizard, whose pimples were visible even by the dim, silvery light of the Veela, now cut in, "I'm about to become the youngest ever Minister of Magic, I am."

But the Veela were not paying attention to their admirers. The moment Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione entered their clearing, they had turned their shining eyes upon the three boys, tossing their golden hair and smiling widely.

Hermione saw both Harry and Ron become entranced immediately, but Faykan glared at the Veela, " _putta i' luhta ron ier nu haba vara_ ," he yelled at them as he took hold of Harry's arm, preventing him walking toward the creatures. Hermione took hold of Ron, and together she and Faykan marched the boys away. By the time the sounds of the Veela and their admirers had faded completely, they were in the very heart of the wood. They seemed to be alone now; everything was much quieter.

Hermione turned soon after they settled down in the clearing. It sounded as though someone was staggering toward them. They waited, listening to the sounds of the uneven steps behind the dark trees. But the footsteps came to a sudden halt.

"Hello?" called Harry.

There was silence. Harry and Faykan got to their feet and peered around the trees.

"Who's there?" Harry repeated.

And then, without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood; and it uttered, not a panicked shout, but what sounded like a spell.

" _MORSMORDRE!_ "

 _putta i' luhta ron ier nu haba vara : stop the enchantment they are under mine protection_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _This chapter is much the same as previously introduced, with mostly canon material because of the lack of possibilities to influence such a massive event. Take note of the Unspeakables, and their attention to Faykan, that may or may not be relevant later on! Again, much thanks to those that took time and effort to review and send messages, and especially those who went above and beyond, actually acquiring The Dark Is Rising sequence. I certainly hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Until next time everyone!_


	47. Y4-C3: Hogwarts Hosts

_Many thanks to those that reviewed the previous chapters. everything is happily progressing, with assistance to the positive feedback that my stories are receiving. please R &R, and enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Three**

 **Hogwarts Hosts**

Harry wasn't all together sure what transpired just after the green skull had appeared in the sky above the sea of tents. It had barely registered in Harry's mind before the sound of many wizards Apparating around them, and Harry was being pushed to the ground by Hermione as Faykan conjured a large dazzling ward around them, deflecting the twenty or more stunners sent at them by the Ministry wizards. They were saved by Mr. Weasley's cries of 'Stop! That's my son!'

They were then interrogated by Mr. Crouch, who seemed rather frazzled by the symbol in the sky, the 'Dark Mark' he had called it. It took several minutes to finally convince Mr. Crouch that the four children couldn't have made the Mark, and after investigating where Harry, Ron, Hermione and Faykan heard the voice, the Ministry wizards found a house elf, the same creature Harry remembered seeing in the Top Box, and again in the woods as they were running. The strangest thing, however, was that the elf, Winky, was found with Ron's wand in her grasp, and that the wand had, in fact, been the wand to produce the Mark.

After Mr. Diggory rather curtly interrogated Winky, much to Hermione's increasing irritation, Mr. Crouch, as Winky's owner, dismissed her as his servant despite the evidence pointing to her innocence, which caused the small creature to break down in anguished sobs. Mr. Weasley recovered Ron's wand and ushered them all back to the tent for the rest of the night, and they portkeyed early the next day back to the Burrow.

Mrs. Weasley was beside herself when they returned, hugging them all in turn, and all but crushing Fred and George in her embrace. Mr. Weasley gathered the morning paper and read it aloud for them all, finally concluding that he was going to be needed at the Ministry, and both he and Percy set off.

"Mrs. Weasley," said Harry suddenly, unable to contain himself, "Hedwig hasn't arrived with a letter for me, has she?"

"Hedwig, dear?" said Mrs. Weasley distractedly. "No... No, there hasn't been any post at all."

Ron and Hermione looked curiously at Harry. With a meaningful look at both of them he said, "All right if I go and dump my stuff in your room, Ron?"

"Yeah... think I will too," said Ron at once. "Hermione, Fay?"

"Yes," they replied quickly, and the four of them marched out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

"What's up, Harry?" said Ron, the moment they had closed the door of the attic room behind them.

"There's something I haven't told you two," Harry said. "On Saturday morning, I woke up with my scar hurting again."

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In one of the highest towers of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk pondering over the events that he had been collecting, and adding the most recent bits of information that he had gathered.

Just before the end of the previous year, Miss Granger had come to him clearly conflicted about revealing some important piece of information. While he had wanted to pry into her mind and just take everything he could, Albus had been blocked by the same sort of powerful Occlumency that guarded Harry and Faykan's minds from him, and therefore had been forced to keep to just what the girl had been willing to divulge.

What Granger had said however, was important enough on its own that he did not need too much in regard to the full details. Apparently Faykan Undol had brought into Hogwarts a powerful object, some sort of orb that had aided him in placing the barriers over the children's minds, and also it had shown visions of a ruinous future to the young Gryffindor girl, frightening her to the possibility that Harry might have died on the fated night when the Dementors attacked him, Sirius, and Faykan.

What she left unsaid, was perhaps more pointed than what she had mentioned, as Albus had asked many pointed questions regarding that vision, or series of vision, and concluded that what she had seen was in part a potential future, and in part a manifestation of her own distrust and fears.

But still, the idea of a powerful demon-like terror that young Faykan could become if Harry were to die was a significant threat to Albus, as the horrific destiny that Harry had before him could easily bring about something similar to that vision. The last thing that Albus wanted was to face an opponent so young and yet so terribly powerful, if what he learned about the boy these last three years was remotely true. He had gratefully erased the memory of their meeting from Miss Granger, and sent her on her way, as with a careful nudge she lost her nerve to spill her information and wished him a good summer before departing.

Albus had to, unfortunately, eliminate or otherwise severely weaken Undol in order for his plan with Harry to defeat Voldemort was to go on without problems. The idea that Harry had to die in order for Voldemort to be defeated would not sit with Faykan at all, especially if the rumors of a romantic attachment between the boys were even remotely true. Albus was not one to give credit to a boy as twisted or slightly ill as Theodore Nott, but the evidence was present for a terrible attachment between the two Gryffindors, and to sever such a relationship would cause terrible repercussions.

Harry's anger, Albus could handle, but Faykan's would be of a magnitude that Albus could only guess at. That was not worth trying to venture. There would be a way to weaken, distract, and potentially put the boy into a situation where Albus could add the tiniest manipulation to the boy's mind, transferring even a bit of the loyalty he had for Harry to the Headmaster himself.

But in order for such a spell to work, Undol would have to be under immense pressure, and nothing short of a dire emergency would bring that about with how strong the boy's endurance was. The Triwizard Tournament would be perfect for accomplishing just that needed situation. As luck would have it, the tournament was being forced upon Hogwarts this year, and Albus hoped that his little suggestions would tip the balance in his favor just enough to accomplish his ends without anyone being the wiser for it.

He had no doubts that, if his name found its way into the Goblet of Fire, Undol would be chosen to compete, even over seventh years. The boy would triumph, without much in the way of challenge, but the mental strain in addition to a few other tricks that Albus would be implementing over the year would set him up for at least a single nervous breakdown, which would give Albus the moment he needed.

He was just not penning out his suggestions for the three tasks, and figuring out the logistics of where to put the beasts that would be needed for them to go as smoothly as possible.

Albus was disturbed out of his thoughts of the Triwizard tournament by a loud cawing from outside his window. Turning in his chair, Albus was surprised to find, not a single raven, but a complete murder of the blackest, largest birds circling through the turrets and towers of Hogwarts, cawing madly as they wheeled and turned, finally diving down to settle in, of all places, the Whomping Willow.

This caused Albus to raise his eyebrows in genuine astonishment, that tree never permitted anything to roost in its branches, but there it was, contentedly swaying under the weight of the hundred or so black birds, all of which had their eyes turned up to the castle, almost expectantly.

Albus remembered the report from Severus about the ravens of Germany taking flight towards Britain in response to a pulse of powerful magic, but to control so many creatures so far from their home was indeed a feat. Hopefully it would prove beneficial to Albus, but regardless of the odd phenomenon he must prepare continue to plans for his goal.

Getting the boy into the tournament would be child's play. He was easily the strongest student in Hogwarts, so all Albus had to do was place his name in the Goblet for him, and it would naturally select him. The only difficulty would be preparing dangerous enough tasks without being too obvious. 'Perhaps a small chat with Charlie Weasley would prove most profitable,' Albus thought as he returned to his paperwork…

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Harry could sense a definite end-of-the-holidays gloom in the air over the final week before the return to Hogwarts. Both Bill and Charlie were still at the Burrow, so Harry and Faykan were continuing to adjust to sharing a bed at night.

Personally, Harry felt it was rather pleasant, after overcoming the initial discomfort and embarrassment, sleeping with the soothing sounds of another person's heart beat and breathing, and being kept warm by the extra body heat. It was an interesting experience, and sometimes made Harry wonder what it would have been like to have siblings, although he didn't dwell on that thought very long. Not that Harry would want something like sharing a bed with another bloke a permanent habit any time soon that was.

Hermione had been rather unbearable ever since the aftermath of the World Cup. Any mention of house elves or Mr. Crouch would set her off ranting about slavery and the unfairness of the wizarding world to their fellow magical creatures. Needless to say, Percy and Hermione got into several arguments over the week, and today turned out no different. "Now look here, Hermione!" said Percy. "A high-ranking Ministry official like Mr. Crouch deserves unswerving obedience from his servants…"

"His slave, you mean!" said Hermione, her voice rising passionately, "because he didn't pay Winky, did he?"

"I think you'd all better go upstairs and check that you've packed properly!" said Mrs. Weasley, breaking up the argument as she had many times already. "Come on now, all of you..."

Harry, having been working on polishing his Firebolt, repacked his broomstick servicing kit and swung his broom over his shoulder as he, Faykan and Ron mounted the stairs.

The rain sounded even louder at the top of the house, accompanied by loud whistlings and moans from the wind, not to mention sporadic howls from the ghoul who lived in the attic. Pigwidgeon began twittering and zooming around his cage when they entered. The sight of the half-packed trunks seemed to have sent him into a frenzy of excitement.

"Bung him some Owl Treats," said Ron, throwing a packet across to Harry. "It might shut him up."

Harry poked a few Owl Treats through the bars of Pigwidgeon's cage, and then turned to his trunk. Hedwig's cage stood next to it, still empty.

"It's been over a week," Harry said, looking at Hedwig's deserted perch. "You don't reckon Sirius has been caught do you?" he asked out loud.

"Nah, it would've been in the Daily Prophet," said Ron. "The Ministry would want to show they'd caught someone, wouldn't they?"

"Yeah, I suppose..."

"Besides," Faykan added, "Sirius is far too smart to get caught by the Ministry. They only got him the first time because he was torn up with grief. Now that he knows you're relying on him; he'll keep himself safe."

"That's what I'm worried about," Harry replied, worried. What _would_ Sirius do when he heard about Harry's scar?

"Look," Ron said abruptly, "here's the stuff Mum got you both in Diagon Alley. And she's got some gold out of your vaults for you... and she's washed all your socks."

Harry smiled as Ron pushed two large piles of parcels and clothes onto Harry's and Faykan's bed. Ron knew when a distraction was in order, and for that Harry was very glad they were friends.

Harry put his money bag aside and started opening the shopping packages. Apart from ' _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4, by Miranda Goshawk,_ ' he had a handful of new quills, a dozen rolls of parchment, and refills for his potion making kit, he had been running low on spine of lionfish and essence of belladonna. He was just piling underwear into his cauldron when Ron made a loud noise of disgust behind him.

"What is that supposed to be?"

He was holding up something that looked to Harry like a long, maroon velvet dress. It had a moldy-looking lace frill at the collar and matching lace cuffs. There was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Weasley entered, carrying an armful of freshly laundered Hogwarts robes.

"Here you are," she said, sorting them into three piles. "Now, mind you pack them properly so they don't crease."

"Mum, you've given me Ginny's new dress," said Ron, handing it out to her.

"Of course I haven't," said Mrs. Weasley. "That's for you. Dress robes."

"What?" said Ron, horrorstruck.

"Dress robes!" repeated Mrs. Weasley. "It says on your school list that you're supposed to have dress robes this year... robes for formal occasions."

"You've got to be kidding," said Ron in disbelief. "I'm not wearing that, no way."

"Everyone wears them, Ron!" said Mrs. Weasley crossly. "They're all like that! Your father's got some for smart parties!"

"I'll go starkers before I put that on," said Ron stubbornly. Faykan sniggered behind Mrs. Weasley as he placed his folded robes in his trunk.

"Don't be so silly," said Mrs. Weasley. "You've got to have dress robes; they're on your list! I got some for Harry and Faykan too... show him, boys..."

In some trepidation, Harry opened the last parcel on his camp bed. It wasn't as bad as he had expected, however; his dress robes didn't have any lace on them at all. In fact, they were more or less the same as his school ones, except that they were bottle green instead of black. Faykan held up a similar pair, midnight blue trimmed in black.

"I thought they'd bring out the color of your eyes," said Mrs. Weasley fondly to the two of them as Harry and Faykan examined their robes.

"Well, they're okay!" said Ron angrily, looking at Faykan's and Harry's robes. "Why couldn't I have some like that?"

"Because... well, I had to get yours secondhand, and there wasn't a lot of choice!" said Mrs. Weasley, flushing.

Harry looked away. He would willingly have split all the money in his Gringotts vault with the Weasleys, and he knew Faykan was of the same opinion, but he also knew the family would never take any charity.

"I'm never wearing them," Ron was saying stubbornly. "Never."

"Fine," snapped Mrs. Weasley. "Go naked. And you two, make sure you get a picture of him. Goodness knows I could do with a laugh."

She left the room, slamming the door behind her. There was a funny spluttering noise from behind them. Pigwidgeon was choking on an overlarge Owl Treat.

"Why is everything I own rubbish?" said Ron furiously, striding across the room to unstick Pigwidgeon's beak.

"Come off it Ron," Said Faykan, twirling his wand absently in his left hand while Ron removed the treat from the tiny Scops owl's beak, "it's not like we can't make them less… you know… old looking."

With that, Faykan pointed his wand at the door, locking it with a soft click, and then proceeding to levitate Ron's dress robes in front of the lanky boy's body. "Alright, first the need a small resizing to fit snugly," Faykan said, causing the robe's sleeves and hem to lengthen to the end of Ron's wrists and ankles, "next, the lace," Faykan then slashed the lace away with several decisive severing charms, leaving the neck and sleeves looking much more masculine, "which leaves us with that awful shade of maroon…" he looked Ron up and down for a second or two, "How do you feel about more of a violet?" Ron shrugged and Faykan waved his wand, causing the robes to change to a deep purple hue, with the outer edges trimmed in gold. Ron smile down at the newly transfigured robes; they did look a lot more pleasant than previously.

Faykan looked around the room, searching for something, "Just needs one final touch… Ah, _accio_!" from a deep corner of the room came flying a golden tinted crown that Harry remembered from their first year. It sailed over and landed with a metallic clink on Ron's head, fitting much better than it had three years previous.

"I give you, Harry, the Weasel King!" Faykan proclaimed, bowing deeply to Ron, whose ears turned pink as Harry roared with laughter.

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Hermione sat trying to read during the ride to Hogwarts as Ron complained loudly about his family refusing to tell any of them about what the special event that was happening at Hogwarts this year.

"Bagman wanted to tell us what's happening," he said grumpily, finally sitting down next to Harry. "At the World Cup, remember? But my own mother won't say. Wonder what…"

Hermione paused as she heard voices coming from the next compartment over, "Shh!" she whispered suddenly, silencing the three boys so they could also listen in on Theodore Nott's all to familiar drawls.

"…Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the Headmaster there, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore already, the Mudblood lover, but Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But mother's fondest wish was for her children to go to Hogwarts, and Father wanted to honor her memory when she died. But did you know Durmstrang students actually study the Dark Arts, not just the defense rubbish we do…"

Hermione got up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out the boy's sarcastic voice.

"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" she said angrily. "I wish he had gone, we wouldn't have to put up with him then."

"Durmstrang's another wizarding school?" asked Harry.

"Yes," said Hermione, "and it's got a horrible reputation. According to ' _An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe,_ ' it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts."

"Ah, but think of the possibilities," said Ron dreamily. "It would've been so easy to push Nott off a glacier and make it look like an accident..."

Even Hermione found the comment humorous.

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Draco managed to escape the Slytherin fourth year compartment without Nott noticing, he had become extremely vindictive of anyone he associated with Harry or Faykan since last year, and being the Malfoy heir was becoming a rapidly thinning shield. Draco walked down the isle of the Hogwarts Express, looking for his true friends, and was stopped by Blaise Zabini on his way toward the front of the train.

"Looking for Potter and Undol?" he asked with an uncaring hint of distaste.

"And if I am?" Draco retorted suspiciously. Blaise was, for however much he disliked Nott, still not trustworthy to Draco. His mother had outlived seven husbands, and most than likely taught her son that, to survive, you must be ready to stab your friends in the back if necessary. It would certainly explain his lack of friends at Hogwarts.

"Well," the black boy said, shifting as a seventh year passed, "you would want to know that they're in the compartment next to ours, on the other side…"

"Oh…" Draco replied, slightly embarrassed, but refusing to show it, "Well, thanks, then." And he moved back toward the rear of the train, moved past the Slytherin compartment, and peeked inside the next one.

His friends were indeed inside. Ron was talking with Neville Longbottom about the World Cup; Hermione was reading from her ' _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4,_ ' and both Harry and Faykan were staring out the widow, watching the landscape fly past as the train speeded north. "Oh, hello Draco," Hermione said as he slid the compartment door open.

"Hello," Draco replied, taking a seat next to her, across from Longbottom. Ron perked up immediately as he saw Draco, "Hey, you dad is involved with the Ministry Draco, what the big event that's going to happen this year? No one will tell us."

Draco smirked, "How can you not know already Ron, you have two people in your family who actually work for the Ministry…"

"Well, Percy doesn't really count as a person more than as a fanatical rule freak, so…" Faykan interjected from the far side of the compartment. Draco sniggered slightly. Any family whose members included Percy Weasley defiantly were far too Gryffindor for their own good.

"As a matter of fact I do know Ron, my father…" Draco paused after saying the word, it felt oddly sour in his mouth, "he heard it from Minister Fudge himself." Draco leaned in and lowered his voice conspiratorially, "It seems that the Triwizard Tournament is set to be restarted at Hogwarts this year."

Neville, Ron, and Hermione gasped, Harry looked confused, and Faykan looked torn between smiling and frowning at the same instant. "But," Hermione said, "It was disbanded after so many people were killed. Why would the Ministry bring something that dangerous back?"

"I don't know the specifics Hermione," Draco said, deflating slightly, "knowing Dumbledore, there will probably be some kind of safety measures in place."

"Who cares about that," Ron said, his face ready to split in two, "hey, are you going to enter Fay?" he said, glancing over.

"Me?" Faykan asked as if he never considered the possibility, "Absolutely not. Like I want more money, or fame and glory… all overrated if you ask me." He said.

They spent a few discussing the tournament, speculating on who could be chosen, and what might happen during it. Draco was pleasantly surprised that Hermione knew quiet a bit about the functioning of the previous tournaments, and their outcomes. Finally, Hermione and Neville left to get changed into their school robes, and Draco could speak more freely.

"So, are we continuing to meet in the Room of Requirement for your special defense training Fay?" he asked as the Gryffindors pulled their robes on.

"I don't see any reason to the contrary, unless you have objections…" Faykan replied as the boy pulled a jumper over his head.

Naturally, Draco did not, so he simply smiled as he pondered what his crafty friend had in store this year for them to learn as the train pulled into Hogsmeade station.

Hagrid greeted them as they piled out of the train with the rest of the school. The rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were being emptied repeatedly over their heads. Or at least it would have if Faykan hadn't cleverly warded them all to repel water, making it so that they were all comfortably warm and dry as they climbed into one of the many horseless carriages, which set off with a rumbling lurch toward the castle.

Draco noticed that Faykan seemed to be watching the shafts of their carriage, as if something was yoked there. It was odd, but Draco assumed that Faykan was just thinking about something as he was prone to do often.

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Severus watched the masses of drenched students enter the Great Hall with his usual sneer firmly in place, but inwardly he was searching specifically for a handful of students.

He spotted several immediately, Terry Boot, Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein, all Ravenclaw fourth year boys, nodded at him as they sat down. These were the students that he and Albus has hand picked to 'observe' Undol during the times that neither Albus nor Severus could, and to report on what the boy was up to.

Of course, none of the three boys were told why, simply that they were being offered extra tutelage in observing powerful wizards with the Lynx Eye Charm and that Mr. Undol was a prime candidate for study before being left to their own devices.

Minutes later the subject in questioned made his appearance, perfectly dry and surrounded by his usual Gryffindor trio and Draco, who broke off to head to the Slytherin table. Severus glanced once more at the three Ravenclaw agents, who were all staring fixedly at Undol, clearly sizing up their year long project.

Severus wondered absently how quickly the three boys would discover that Undol was an animagus, as they had a better head start than Severus himself. He still could not believe that he never made the connection of Undol's tattoos and the blasted fox's fur pattern, it was obvious now. If he ever caught the boy in that form, the boy would find himself locked in a cage for hours as punishment.

But… there were so many questions Severus had about the boy. If he was indeed as Albus thought, trying to harm Potter, then why has he waited so long to act? Why integrate himself so fully into Potter's confidence when he was so powerful he could simply blast the boy apart in moments?

Then there was Theodore Nott's accusation of Undol actually being infatuated or even _in love_ with Potter. Could it possibly be that Albus was mistaken? It had happened before; Albus explained the entire situation with Black to Severus after the Minister left. Severus has been furious at the time, mostly with Black but also with himself for allowing seven years of anger to cloud his judgment.

True he hated the man, hated him to the point where he would have handed him to the dementors without question, but in hindsight, the fear in the man's eyes was so genuine, it caused the words of an old friend to ring in his ears, " _Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them Sev? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement, even the very wise cannot see all ends._ "

Yes, Faykan, _his_ Faykan would have spared Black, and if Severus had tried to do exactly what he did in the Shrieking Shack that night, he would have… Severus' eyes widened slightly as he realized that Undol had done exactly what his father would have in that situation, to the very letter.

Severus shook himself out of his musings with great difficulty. He was having harder and harder times not reliving the past with both Potter and Undol at Hogwarts. Severus cast his eavesdropping spell as the four Gryffindors took their seats, and listened contentedly as they prattled about Quidditch, classes, and other unimportant things, waiting for anything that might shed light on his personal questions about Undol, Albus' plan aside.

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"Hiya, Harry!" called the voice of Colin Creevey.

"Hi, Colin," replied Harry warily, hoping that Colin didn't have anything more to say. Sadly, it was not to be.

"Harry, guess what? Guess what, Harry? My brother's starting! My brother Dennis!"

"Err, good," said Harry.

"He's really excited!" said Colin, practically bouncing up and down in his seat. "I just hope he's in Gryffindor! Keep your fingers crossed, eh, Harry?"

"Err, yeah, all right," said Harry. He turned back to Hermione, Ron, and Faykan, who was looking rather grim at the news, "What?" Harry asked him.

"You're telling me there are two of them?" Faykan moaned loudly, and Ron and Harry laughed. Faykan never got along well with Colin, as the younger boy seemed to always find him when he was in his animagus form, and loved to treat him like a pet of Harry's, stroking his fur rather hard and clutching him like a prized plush toy.

"Where's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Hermione, who was looking up at the teachers to avoid laughing at Faykan herself.

Harry looked up and down the staff table. There was definitely no new face there.

"Maybe they couldn't get anyone!" said Hermione, looking anxious.

Harry scanned the table more carefully. The only face that even stood out was Snape's, because he was looking directly at them, it was slightly unnerving. Harry looked away quickly. He could still feel the Potion Master's eyes on them however, and it set his teeth on edge.

"Oh hurry up," Ron moaned, oblivious to everyone except his stomach, "I could eat a hippogriff."

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the doors of the Great Hall opened and silence fell. Professor McGonagall was leading a long line of first years up to the top of the Hall. They looked positively soaked, shivering with both nerves and cold. All but the smallest boy, who's face beamed with excitement over Hagrid's moleskin overcoat, which draped over him like a circus tent. When he had lined up with his terrified-looking peers, he caught Colin Creevey's eye, gave a double thumbs-up, and mouthed, 'I fell in the lake!' He looked positively delighted about it. The boy reminded Harry about how Faykan had stood out from among them during their own sorting, his confidence shining like a sunrise.

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Hermione caught the look that passed between Harry and Faykan as they watched the youngest Creevey boy join the rest of the first years. Hermione smiled to herself, people were easy to read if you knew what to look for.

The sparkle in Faykan's eyes when he looked at Harry was a clear tell that he was madly attracted to his best friend. Hermione didn't buy for a second Faykan's long tyraid at the end of the previous year about being like brothers with Harry.

It was just such a shame that Fay lacked the courage to even acknowledge his own feelings. Even if Harry refused him, which Hermione found unlikely to happen, she could name off several other girls and boys, who Faykan could easily find happiness with.

The stares and sidelong glances the were sent at Faykan during mealtimes over the last year were proof enough that he was indeed attractive, but Fay was singly obsessed with Harry, and was therefore blind to any other person.

Perhaps if, given time and circumstances, Hermione could nudge the two closer together and convince Faykan to express himself. As the first new Ravenclaw took his seat, Hermione watched Harry's eyes drift over Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker. 'Oh dear,' she thought. Harry was blushing slightly. He must have a crush on the fifth year student, which could prove disastrous for Faykan.

After the sorting, Professor Dumbledore stood up, "I have only two words to say to you," he told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. "Tuck in."

"Hear, hear!" said Harry and Ron loudly as the empty dishes filled magically before their eyes.

"Well," Faykan commented, pulling a steak onto his plate and spooning a pile of mash beside, "the house elves outdid themselves this year…"

Clang!

Hermione didn't realize she had knocked over her goblet of pumpkin juice, her shock was too great. How could she not have realized.

"There are house elves here?" she said, staring, horror struck at Faykan. "Here at Hogwarts?"

"Naturally," he replied simply, "Over a hundred or so I think."

Hermione could feel her rage building. "But they do get paid right?" she asked, her voice shaking, "They get holidays and… and sick leave, and everything?"

"Holidays and sick leave?" Faykan said, looking confused at her, "House elves would be insulted to be given those things Hermione, they don't want them."

Hermione looked down at her hardly touched plate of food, suddenly nauseated at the thought of eating, then put her knife and fork down upon it and pushed it away from her.

"Oh c'mon, 'Er-my-knee," said Ron, accidentally spraying Harry and Faykan with bits of Yorkshire pudding. "Oops… sorry…" He swallowed. "You won't get them sick leave by starving yourself!"

"Slave labor," said Hermione, breathing hard through her nose. "That's what made this dinner. Slave labor…"

And she refused to eat another bite, despite Ron's pitiful attempts to tempt her with the deserts that arrived later.

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When the puddings had been demolished, and the last crumbs had faded off the plates, leaving them sparkling clean, Albus got to his feet again. The buzz of chatter filling the Hall ceased almost at once, so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.

"So!" he called out, smiling around at the children's faces. "Now that we are all fed and watered," he noticed that Miss Granger scowled at that, but ignored it, "I must ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices."

As Albus parroted off his usual automatic start-of-term notices, he glanced over at Mr. Undol, sitting with young Harry and his friends. The boy was as confident as ever, grinning as if he knew the world's darkest secrets. Well, the boy would soon be safely on Albus' side and out of the way. Harry would back on the right path for the prophecies to be fulfilled and Albus would be hailed as the great leader of light, the heroic guide who steered the Boy-who-lived on his path to defeating Voldemort.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year." He said, returning to the task at hand.

The protests of the Quidditch enthusiast students was well verbalized, but Albus pressed on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy, but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts…"

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling.

Alastor Moody limped toward the head table, his wooden leg causing a dull clunk every other step. Albus smiled, the next part of his scheme falling into place. He had been unsure if Alastor would agree to ensure Faykan's participation in the tournament, but here he was.

When Alastor reached Albus, he stretched his hand for Albus to shake, and muttered in his gravely voice, "Which one is he?"

"Gryffindor table, the black haired boy next to Harry Potter," Albus muttered in response.

Alastor's magical eye spun around to point towards the students. "I see him." He murmured as he moved to the empty chair between Severus and Minerva. Albus returned to the students.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody."

The students seemed to in shock of the new appointment to applaud, and Albus cleared his throat to carry on where he left off, "As I was saying," he smiled again at the sea of students, "we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"YOU'RE JOKING!" yelled one of the Weasley twins.

The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Alastor's arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyone laughed, and Albus chuckled appreciatively.

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he replied, "Though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Err, but maybe this is not the time... no..." he amended, "where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament…"

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Harry sat listening with interest as Dumbledore outlined the basics and new rules of the Triwizard Tournament. Most people were outraged at the new age limit, but the twins figured that they could fool the impartial judge. Dumbledore sent them all straight off to bed afterward, and the Gryffindors made their way up to the seventh floor, excitedly chattering about the tournament.

As Harry, Ron, Hermione and Faykan had discussed it in depth while on the train; they were free to speak under the dim of the rest of their house unobserved. Hermione was still angry about house elves however, so the three boys lagged at the rear of the group to talk privately. "So Fay, what's on the schedule for our training this year?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Well, aside from what we've already started, we might try to work on more advanced techniques, and maybe, if we're lucky, we might start work on acquiring your animagus forms…"

Ron let out a whoop of triumph as they entered the common room. Harry smiled, wondering what he would become. He fell asleep that night dreaming of soaring over mountains, swimming under the seas and tunneling beneath the earth.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You Have Benn Warned!**

 _Yay new section update. I ended up tweaking the first Albus section, and have Hermione confess some of her misgivings about Faykan to Dumbledore. I feel that this is well within character as established, as Hermione is still very much the brown-noser rule keeper, and doesn't understand the full impact of what she had done in revealing the information to a person that she felt was trustworthy above all others in magical circumstances. in addition, as Faykan has spent much of his energy molding Harry and Draco over the others, they would therefore be fvastly more like their canon selves than the others who have interacted with Faykan more. Many thanks to you all, and ill see you in two weeks with the next chapter! ~F_


	48. Y4-C4: Alastor Moody

_Thanks to those who reviewed, great things progressing here, and while I may not address all of your ideas, they are at the least read and considered, so don't feel bad if I do not respond. Schoolwork has been taking a larger priority in my life as of late and I find myself running low on time in the evenings when I typically read my reviews. Anyway, R &Rand enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Four**

 **Alastor Moody**

The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavy clouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione examined their new course schedules at breakfast.

A few seats along, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and thereby bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament. Ron was annoyed by their class still being paired with the Slytherins for Care of Magical Creatures, while Harry personally was dreading double Divination that afternoon. Hermione was eating again, as Ron was quick to point out. Her reasoning was that there were 'better ways of making a stand about elf rights…"

"Yeah… and you were hungry," replied a grinning Ron.

There was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. Instinctively, Harry looked up, but there was no sign of white among the mass of brown and gray. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed.

Harry was about to return to his plate when not one, but three large black ravens landed with a clatter right next to him, in front of Faykan. None of the birds carried letters, and Harry watched confused as they began to caw loudly. Faykan watched with rapt attention, while the growing noise began to attract more attention from surrounding people. After several minutes, the birds abruptly took off again, following the post owls up and out to the grounds.

"What the bloody hell was that about?" said Ron, uncovering his ears after the birds left.

"Oh, just a friendly little warning for me," Faykan replied with a small wicked grin as he turned to glance up at the Head table.

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Severus watched, surprised as the three ravens soared back out of the Great Hall. Undol had summoned the ravens of Germany to serve him… it was always that boy! Everything seemed to come back to point directly at him. How could one boy be the center of so much mystery and subterfuge?

Albus leaned over toward him as the students started to disperse, "Severus, I think it's time for you to have a little chat with Mr. Undol." Severus nodded, groaning inwardly. He was not looking forward to being in close company with the boy outside of his classes again.

Nevertheless, Severus had questions of his own for Undol, and acting on Albus' request was the perfect alibi. Striding into the entrance hall behind a group of Hufflepuffs, Severus could see the Gryffindor quartet heading toward the oak front doors, "Undol!" he yelled, startling the students around him. The boy turned, and smiled as he saw Severus making his way toward his little group.

"Yes Professor?" he asked innocently. Severus sneered in return, they boys impudence was as unfailing as ever.

"Come with me…" he said, motioning toward the dungeons. Potter, Granger and Weasley glared at their retreating forms, but Undol did not protest, which made Severus job much easier.

When they reached the Potions classroom, Severus bolted the door behind them to prevent students wandering in after breakfast for lessons. Undol was casually leaning against the stone wall, as if he had privet chats with his professors daily. "So… what is it you wanted to ask Professor?" he mused, grinning in that obnoxious way that reminded Severus so much of the boy's father.

"You know very well what. I know a fact that those were ravens from Germany that landed in front of you this morning, and I want to know why." Severus demanded. He was finished with using subtly with this boy; he was far too clever for it, so Gryffindor bluntness and force was needed.

"Simple," Undol replied, "they told me that you were in Fanghorn forest when I summoned them, harvesting _Athelas_ I presume. Also they were giving me status reports of the security of the grounds."

Severus was shocked by the boy's blunt honesty. The truth was in his eyes. "How? Why?" he attempted, unable to voice his questions through his astonishment.

"My family has long been able to command and understand the Crebain of Dunland and Fanghorn forest; it was simple to magnify my command for them to come to Hogwarts on the wind. As to why, you know and I know that the Headmaster does not trust me, so I decided that alternative means of communication were necessary for when he decides to halt my owl post."

"And what do you think will stop me from informing Professor Dumbledore about you little secrets?" Severus threatened, his vehemence returning.

"What secrets? He is aware of the Crebain, and my animagus form, and other than those, you both are blissfully ignorant of my doings." Undol snickered, "Oh by the way Sev, I'm sorry that I put you to sleep last year, I could not permit Sirius to be captured, he is needed…"

Severus' rage exploded at the use of his childhood nickname. He seized the front of Undol's robes, yanking the boy off his feet and knocking his head against the wall. "You dare to call me that!" he hissed at Undol, shaking in his fury.

The boy's eyes were wide, and alarm was evident in them, "I'm sorry Professor, please… you're hurting me… please, put me down…" for some reason, Undol's terror wasn't satisfying to watch, if anything it was rather painful for Severus to see. He released the boy immediately, and seconds later heard the slam of the classroom door as Undol fled. Severus did not move for a long moment, going over what had just overcome him.

Never in his tenure as a professor had he ever _dared_ to lay a hand on a student. How could Undol so easily get under his skin like that. It wasn't just the use of his old school nickname.

It was the fact that the boy had said it _exactly_ like his father had so long ago, with such familiarity that it brought up the worst memories that Severus had regarding the elder Undol. Learning of the man's death at the hands of the Dark Lord had added fuel to the fire of his betrayal when he learned of the prophecy, and it was still a very sore topic. Even Lucius did not dare make mention of their old friend in Severus' presence.

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Draco watched as Faykan ran down to join the rest of the class for Care of Magical Creature several minutes late. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked concerned as he arrived, muttered an apology to Hagrid, and joined then at their box of Blast-Ended Skrewts. "Where were you?" Harry asked, "Why didn't you make it to Herbology?" Faykan just shook his head, but Draco noticed that his hands were shaking slightly as he attempted to feed the horrid little creatures the variety of food Hagrid had supplied them with.

"Faykan, are you okay?" Draco asked, stopping Faykan by grabbing one of his trembling hands.

Faykan jerked away, "I'm fine Draco!" he said angrily. Behind them, Draco could hear Theodore Nott sniggering, but they ignored him.

"No Fay, your not. Look, your hands are shaking; please tell us what's wrong." Hermione pleaded.

"Did Snape say or do something?" Ron suggested.

"It's nothing, I did something stupid but it's not important. Can we please drop it?" Faykan retorted irritably.

Draco glanced at the other Gryffindors, knowing that it was futile to try and get Faykan to budge on speaking about personal things. The words of Blaise Zabini from the previous year sounded in his head, " _Don't you find it odd, that you know very little about such a close friend?_ "

Draco decided that it was past time for them all to have a long chat with Faykan about himself, whether he liked it or not. He would need to plan with Harry, Ron and Hermione to organize this, or it would never work though.

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Hermione caught up with Harry, Ron and Faykan as they headed down the marble staircase later that day for dinner. "Lots of homework?" she asked, catching the sour look on Ron's face, "Professor Vector didn't give us any at all."

"Well, bully for Professor Vector," said Ron moodily.

Hermione rolled her eyes as Harry and Faykan sniggered at Ron's displeasure. They reached the entrance hall, which was packed with people queuing for dinner.

They had just joined the end of the line, when a loud voice rang out behind them. "Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"

They all turned to find Nott, Crabbe and Goyle standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.

"What?" said Ron shortly.

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Nott, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!

' _FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC'_

' _It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.'_

Nott looked up.

"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed.

Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Nott straightened the paper with a flourish and read on:

' _Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers ("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene.'_

"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Nott, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house… if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

Ron was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.

"Get stuffed, Nott," said Harry. "C'mon, Ron..."

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Nott. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

"At least Ron still has a mother Nott. What happened? Did yours kill herself when she saw you were going to be her child?" Faykan said furiously.

Nott's face contorted with rage. "Don't you dare insult my mother Undol."

"Then keep your fat mouth shut then…" Faykan replied, turning away.

BANG!

Several people screamed, a curse sail right past Faykan's face, missing by inches. Hermione, Harry, and Ron all whipped out their wands, but there was a second loud BANG, and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"

Everyone spun around. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white hare, which was shivering on the stone flagged floor, exactly where Nott had been standing.

There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle. Moody turned to look at Faykan, at least, his normal eye was looking at Faykan; Hermione saw that the other one was pointing into the back of his head.

"Did he get you?" Moody growled. His voice was low and gravelly. Faykan shook his head, eyeing Moody with suspicion.

"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted, whirling on Crabbe, who froze, about to pick up the white rabbit. Moody started to limp toward the two Slytherins and the hare suddenly gave a terrified shriek and ran toward the dungeons, Faykan the fox dashing after it from between Moody's mismatched legs.

"I don't think so!" roared Moody, pointing his wand at the hare again. It flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more; Faykan snapping at it ever time it came within reach.

"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," growled Moody as the rabbit bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do..."

He then sent the rabbit soaring through the air, landing with a smack on the stone floor. Faykan bounded after it, his teeth gleaming white. The rabbit shrieked and darted off around the entrance hall, Faykan keeping up easily, nipping at the hare's heels to frighten it further.

"Professor Moody!" said a shocked voice.

Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall," said Moody calmly, watching the two animal dash around the floor.

"What, what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the squealing rabbit in circles.

"Teaching," said Moody.

"Teach… Moody is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.

"Which one?" Moody asked uncaringly.

"Either!" Professor McGonagall shouted.

"Well, the rabbit is… no idea where the fox came from though…" Moody said, although Harry suspected that he was lying.

"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Theodore Nott had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor. He got to his feet, wincing.

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall, looking for where Faykan the fox had disappeared to. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock…"

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"

"I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at Nott with great dislike. "Come on you…"

And he seized Nott's upper arm and marched him off toward the dungeons.

Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, and then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms.

"Don't talk to me," Ron said quietly to Harry, Faykan and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.

"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.

"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Theo Nott, the amazing, shrieking bunny rabbit." They all burst out laughing, and Hermione began doling beef casserole onto all of their plates.

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The Gryffindor fourth years were looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they arrived early on Thursday lunchtime and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.

"Been in the…"

"…Library." Harry finished her sentence for her. "C'mon, quick, or we won't get decent seats."

They hurried into four chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited.

Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.

"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures - you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind… very behind, on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark…"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled, the first time Harry had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago... Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore: just one year, and then back to my quiet retirement." He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"So, straight into it… Curses… They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you the counter-curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.

"So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Faykan's, Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.

"Err," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one; gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Harry felt Ron recoil slightly next to him, Ron hated spiders.

Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, " _Imperio!_ "

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, and then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.

Everyone was laughing, everyone except Faykan and Moody.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter died away almost instantly.

"Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, or throw itself down one of your throats..."

Ron gave an involuntary shudder.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Harry knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped.

Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.

"Anyone else know one; another illegal curse?"

Faykan's and Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to Harry's slight surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.

"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.

"There's one, the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice. Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. " _Engorgio!_ "

The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretenses, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible.

Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, " _Crucio!_ "

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Harry was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently… "Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly.

Harry looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville. Harry, following her gaze saw that Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white and his eyes wide and horrified.

Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch. " _Reducio_ ," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse... That one was very popular once too."

"Right... anyone know any others?" he added after a solemn moment.

Harry looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Both Hermione and Faykan raised their hands again, but Hermione' was shaking.

"Yes?" said Moody, pointing at Faykan.

"Avada Kedavra…" he whispered, looking at his desk.

Several people looked uneasily around at him, including Ron.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth, "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse."

He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.

Moody raised his wand, and Harry felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.

" _Avada Kedavra!_ " Moody roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air, instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him.

Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

Harry felt his face redden as Moody's eyes, both of them, looked into his own. He could feel everyone else looking around at him too. Harry stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all...

They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang, but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices.

"Did you see it twitch?"

"…and when he killed it, just like that!"

"Hurry up," Hermione said tensely to Harry and Ron.

"Not the ruddy library again?" said Ron.

"No," said Hermione curtly, pointing up a side passage. "Neville." Neville was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.

"Neville?" Hermione said gently.

Neville looked around.

"Oh hello," he said, his voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm… I'm starving, aren't you?"

"Neville, are you all right?" said Faykan.

"Oh yes, I'm fine," Neville gabbled in the same unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner… I mean lesson… what's for eating?"

Ron gave Harry a startled look.

"Neville, what…?"

But an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Professor Moody limping toward them. All four of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.

"It's all right, sonny," he said to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on... we can have a cup of tea..."

Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. Moody turned his magical eye upon Harry.

"You all right, are you, Potter?"

"Yes," said Harry, almost defiantly.

Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed Harry. Then he said, "You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending... well... come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."

Neville looked pleadingly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but they didn't say anything, so Neville had no choice but to allow himself to be steered away, one of Moody's gnarled hands on his shoulder.

"What was that about?" said Ron, watching Neville and Moody turn the corner.

"I don't know," said Hermione, looking pensive.

Hermione did not join in with Harry's, Faykan's and Ron's conversation during dinner, but ate furiously fast and then left for the library again.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione returned from the library to find the three boys sitting around the common room fire, working on their Divination homework, at least, Ron and Harry were. Faykan was laughing at them both as they made up their predictions.

"Hello," she said, "I've just finished!"

"So have I!" said Ron triumphantly, throwing down his quill.

Hermione sat down, laid the things she was carrying in an empty armchair, and pulled Ron's predictions toward her.

"Not going to have a very good month, are you?" she said sardonically as Crookshanks curled up in her lap. Faykan's sniggers began anew.

"Ah well, at least I'm forewarned," Ron yawned.

"You seem to be drowning twice," said Hermione, tapping the duplicated line on the parchment.

"Oh am I?" said Ron, peering down at his predictions. "I'd better change one of them to getting trampled by a rampaging hippogriff."

"Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?" said Hermione.

"How dare you!" said Ron, in mock outrage. "We've been working like house elves here!"

Hermione raised her eyebrows in exasperation.

"It's just an expression," said Ron hastily.

Harry laid down his quill too, "What's in the box?" he asked, pointing at it.

"Funny you should ask," said Hermione, with a nasty look at Ron. She took off the lid and showed them the contents.

Inside were about fifty badges, all of different colors, but all bearing the same letters: S. P. E .W.

"Spew?" said Harry, picking up a badge and looking at it. "What's this about?"

"Not spew," said Hermione impatiently. "It's S-P-E-W: stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."

"Oh no…" Faykan moaned.

"Never heard of it," said Ron.

"Well, of course you haven't," said Hermione briskly, "I've only just started it."

"Yeah?" said Ron in mild surprise. "How many members have you got?"

"Well, if you three join… four." Hermione replied hopefully.

"And you think we want to walk around wearing badges saying 'spew,' do you?" said Ron.

"S-P-E-W!" said Hermione hotly. "I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status - but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto."

She brandished the sheaf of parchment at them.

"I've been researching it thoroughly in the library. Elf enslavement goes back centuries. I can't believe no one's done anything about it before now."

"I'm not joining," said Faykan.

Hermione looked at him indignantly, "and why not!" she said hotly.

"Well, for one thing, both me and Harry own house elves… and for another you clearly don't understand them. They literally live to serve wizards. If you demeaned that to them with payment or time off, they'd hate it, they'd lose their purpose in life…"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry had to cover his ears when Faykan told Hermione that both he and Harry owned house elves. You would have thought that a howler had gone off in the common room. Faykan tried to explain, but couldn't get a word in edgewise between Hermione screaming her head off at him.

Finally, Faykan stood, anger exploding from him like intense heat, "IF YOU REFUSE TO LISTEN HERMIONE, THEN I'LL JUST STOP SPEAKING TO YOU ENTIRLY!" and he stormed up to the dormitories, causing several windows to shatter behind him.

There was a long silence in which Hermione fumed in her chair, broken finally by a soft hooting near one of the shattered windows. Harry looked across the now empty common room and saw, illuminated by the moonlight, a snowy owl perched on the windowsill.

"Hedwig!" he shouted, and he launched himself out of his chair and across the

Room as Hedwig gingerly stepped over the broken glass and soared down onto a table near their homework.

"About time!" said Harry, hurrying after her.

"She's got an answer!" said Ron excitedly, pointing at the grubby piece of parchment tied to Hedwig's leg.

Harry hastily untied it and sat down to read, whereupon Hedwig fluttered onto his knee, hooting softly.

"What does it say?" Hermione asked breathlessly.

The letter was very short, and looked as though it had been scrawled in a great hurry. Harry read it aloud:

 _Harry,_

 _I'm flying north immediately. This news about your scar is the latest in a series of strange rumors that have reached me here. If it hurts again, go straight to Dumbledore, they're saying he's got Mad-Eye out of retirement, which means he's reading the signs, even if no one else is._

 _I'll be in touch soon. My best to Ron, Faykan and Hermione. Keep your eyes open, Harry._

 _Sirius_

"He's flying north?" Hermione whispered. "He's coming back?"

"Dumbledore's reading what signs?" said Ron, looking perplexed. "Harry - what's up?"

For Harry had just hit himself in the forehead with his fist, jolting Hedwig out of his lap.

"I shouldn't've told him!" Harry said furiously.

"What are you on about?" said Ron in surprise.

"It's made him think he's got to come back!" said Harry, now slamming his fist on the table so that Hedwig landed on the back of Ron's chair, hooting indignantly.

"Coming back, because he thinks I'm in trouble! And there's nothing wrong with me! And I haven't got anything for you," Harry snapped at Hedwig, who was clicking her beak expectantly, "you'll have to go up to the Owlery if you want food."

Hedwig gave him an extremely offended look and took off for the open window, cuffing him around the head with her outstretched wing as she went.

"Harry," Hermione began, in a pacifying sort of voice.

"I'm going to bed," said Harry shortly. "See you in the morning."

Upstairs in the dormitory he pulled on his pajamas and got into his four-poster, but he didn't feel remotely tired.

"Harry?" Faykan peered through the bed curtains, "What's wrong? Did Hermione go after you when I left?"

"No…" Harry said, making room for his best friend to climb onto his bed. Faykan wandlessly cast privacy wards around Harry's bed, and Harry showed him Sirius' letter.

"It's not your fault Harry." Faykan said after he read the letter three times through. "Harry, we all care about you. Think about it, your scar hurts, Ministry workers disappear, Death Eaters at the World Cup, the Triwizard Tournament returns… it doesn't bode well Harry. Sirius isn't a fool, he'll be safe."

Those words were what Harry needed, and he felt all his anger and worry melt away. Faykan ran his hands through Harry's hair several times, messaging his scalp, and Harry felt drowsiness finally overtake him.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You have been Warned!**

 _This ought to be the last of the "rerun" chapters, if I am remembering correctly. things will start to diverge once the tournament begins, with the swapout for Faykan as the fourth Champion, and an increase in intensity regarding to Harry being forced into the Tournament altogether. Dumbledore and his plotting, as well as Moody/Crouch mucking things up all around. Much fun yet to go! ~F_


	49. Y4-C5: The Tournament Begins

_Apologies for slight lateness, been battling seasonal allergies all week and my mind was elsewhere around typical posting time. Many thanks to those who've reviewed over the last few weeks, things are atsrting to wrap up for the Veneficus trilogy writing phase, which will open up the time slots for me to work heavily on finishing editing the rest of AoM. *silent cheering* In the meantime, please R &R, and enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Five**

 **The Tournament Begins**

Harry was excited for the first weekend training session in the Room of Requirement. From the looks of it, Hermione, Ron and Draco were also. Faykan and Hermione had come to an uneasy truce regarding house elves, meaning that neither would discuss the subject with the other present.

Hermione did; however, apologize for shouting at Faykan, and Faykan had apologized for saying that he'd stop speaking to her. They had gone ahead to the room before Faykan, as they remembered exactly the way it was last year, and had it form for them. Hermione had warmed up with some target practice, alternating between spells and arrows, while Draco, Ron, and Harry sparred with swords and wands. Several minutes later, Faykan slipped into the room, looking bothered and pressing his ear to the door to listen outside.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked him, but he held up a finger to his lips for silence. After several seconds he nodded to himself and walked over to them.

"I'm being followed wherever I go." Faykan said.

"What? By who?" Draco asked indignantly.

"Three Ravenclaw boys, in our year I think." Faykan explained, "They keep watching me in the Great Hall, in classes, or anytime they're present. Now one is trying to tail me all weekend I think.

"You're probably overreacting," Hermione said sensibly.

"Yeah, maybe…" Faykan said absently, and then he closed his eyes, concentrating.

The room began to expand, and a potion's lab appeared in the opposite corner from the sitting area, as well as several tables along the wall, on which models of human bodies were piled on.

"What're those for?" asked Ron nodding at the models.

"Healing magic," Faykan replied, "those models have all the parts of a normal being: heart, lungs, brain etc. One can program them to simulate a type of injury, and you can practice healing the wounds." Ron raised his eyebrows, impressed.

"And the potion lab?" Hermione asked.

"So I can work on making the Animal Spirit Potion, so you can get started on your animagus forms," Faykan replied, summoning a book from the far side of the room and setting it near the stone cauldron. He then pulled jars and bottles out of his bag, setting them up on the table nearby.

After emptying his schoolbag of everything in it, Faykan pulled the _Palantír_ out and sent it flying gently across the room, back to the table in the sitting area.

"How long will it take to make that potion?" Harry asked as Faykan left the potion lab and joined them in the middle of the room.

"Oh, couple of months, should be ready around December or January… moon cycles you know…" Faykan said with a grin

They all grinned back at this statement; it would be worth the wait to learn to be Anamagi.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco noticed a substantial increase in the fourth year's course work, and attributed it to the fact that their O.W.L.S were approaching quickly.

Draco, Harry, Faykan, Ron and Hermione were just coming from a wonderful Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Wonderful in the sense that Nott was put down spectacularly by Hagrid, who had reminded the class about what a cute bunny that Nott had made when the boy had complained about the lesson.

When they arrived in the entrance hall, they found themselves unable to proceed. This was due to the large crowd of students congregated there, all milling around a large sign that had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. Ron, the tallest of the five, stood on tiptoe to see over the heads in front of them and read the sign aloud to the others:

 _TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT_

 _THE DELEGATIONS FROM BEAUXBATONS AND DURMSTRANG WILL BE ARRIVING AT 6 O'CLOCK ON FRIDAY THE 30TH OF OCTOBER. LESSONS WILL END HALF AN HOUR EARLY_

"Brilliant!" said Harry. "It's Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won't have time to poison us all!" Draco rolled his eyes; Gryffindors had such an unimaginative impression of his godfather.

 _STUDENTS WILL RETURN THEIR BAGS AND BOOKS TO THEIR DORMITORIES AND ASSEMBLE IN FRONT OF THE CASTLE TO GREET OUR GUESTS BEFORE THE WELCOMING FEAST._

"Only a week away!" said a Hufflepuff boy Draco had never spoken to, who emerged from the crowd with his eyes gleaming. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him..." and he hurried off.

"Imagine, a Hufflepuff as Hogwarts champion…" Draco said snidely, Ron laughed.

"Stop it," Hermione said, "I've heard he's a really good student, and a prefect."

"You only like him because he's handsome," Ron said scathingly.

"Excuse me, I don't like people just because they're handsome!" said Hermione indignantly.

Ron gave a loud false cough, which sounded oddly like "Lockhart!" Even Harry and Faykan laughed.

The appearance of the sign in the entrance hall had a marked effect upon the inhabitants of the castle. During the following week, there seemed to be only one topic of conversation for the rest of student body was the tournament.

Rumors were flying from student to student like highly contagious germs: who was going to try for Hogwarts champion, what the tournament would involve, how the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang differed from themselves.

Only their group seemed to be the calm in the midst of the storm, as Faykan kept them hard at work with their training between classes. Between stepping up their dueling and wandless spells, practicing basic healing, martial training, and their normal coursework, they were all significantly busy to have free time to speculate about the tournament.

Harry had discovered early on that his powers had grown since the dementor attack last year, and he could almost wield wandless spells as well as the rest of them, which alarmed everyone. If Harry's power was still mostly under the limits of the seal, and he was approximately at their level now, then how much more powerful would he become when the seal was removed entirely.

Faykan was pleased at Harry's progress, and pushed him harder than anyone else, Draco noticed. Fay was always trying to get Harry to try new and more difficult spells or to attempt a more complex combat technique. Not to say that he wasn't working Draco, Ron and Hermione like house elves…

Sometimes Faykan would stand over the cauldron in the corner, shouting commands and spells at them while simultaneously brewing, sometimes wielding wandless magic to keep ingredients adding themselves or the stirring rod moving while he demonstrated a wand movement or sword strike. It brought a new meaning to the word brutal, Draco thought.

Draco couldn't tell who was more paranoid, Faykan or Professor Moody. During his last lesson before Halloween, Moody announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on them all in turn.

"But, but you said that's illegal, Professor," protested Pansy Parkinson uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room.

"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto the ugly girl and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way, when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely, fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."

He pointed one gnarled finger toward the door. Parkinson scowled and sat up straighter in her seat defiantly.

Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Draco watched as, one by one, his classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Vincent Crabbe juggled half a dozen large books for several minutes. Gregory Goyle recited complicated potion formulas he normally would have no ability to understand, let alone remember.

Nott was by far the most humorous. He tap danced around the room several times, singing love sonnets at the top of his lungs. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.

"Malfoy," Moody growled, "you next."

Draco moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Draco, and said, " _Imperio!_ "

Draco felt a warm, floating sensation beyond his basic Occlumency barriers, trying to lull him into a sense of complacency. He could hear Moody's voice, garbled and muted, " _Remove your clothes…_ " immediately another voice, sounding like Faykan, imbedded upon a deeper, more powerful voice that resonated with strength and power, " _He will not!_ "

Moody recoiled as if hit with a hurling hex. Staggering slightly, he looked at Draco, his mouth twitching in an amused smile, "Look at that, you lot, Malfoy threw it off completely. Very good, boy, very good indeed, you're stronger than I expected." As Draco took his seat, he noticed that Moody's magical eye was still watching him as he continued the lesson.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

When they went down to breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, Hermione, Harry, Ron and Faykan found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger, and snake united around a large letter ' _H_ '.

They sat down beside Fred and George at the Gryffindor table. Once again, and most unusually, they were sitting apart from everyone else and conversing in low voices. Ron led the way over to them.

"It's a shame, all right," George was saying gloomily to Fred. "But if he won't talk to us in person, we'll have to send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand. He can't avoid us forever.

"Who's avoiding you?" asked Ron, sitting down next to them.

"Wish you would," said Fred, looking irritated at the interruption.

"What's a shame?" Ron pressed, turning to George.

"Having a nosy git like you for a brother," replied George.

"You two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet?" Harry asked. "Thought any more about trying to enter?"

"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn't telling," said George bitterly. "She just told me to shut up and get on with transfiguring my raccoon."

"Wonder what the tasks are going to be?" said Ron thoughtfully. "You know, I bet we could do them, Harry. We've done dangerous stuff before..."

"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," said Fred. "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."

"Who are the judges?" Harry asked.

"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel," Hermione piped in, "because all three of them were injured during the Tournament of 1792, when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on the rampage."

She noticed them all looking at her and explained exasperatedly, "It's all in ' _Hogwarts, A History_.' Though, of course, that book's not entirely reliable. ' _A Revised History of Hogwarts_ 'would be a more accurate title, or ' _A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School_.'"

"What are you on about?" said Ron, while Harry and Faykan had looks of trepidation.

"House elves!" said Hermione, her passion flaring up. "Not once, in over a thousand pages, does ' _Hogwarts, A History_ ' mentions that we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!"

" _Valar_ above Hermione!" Faykan complained angrily, "have you even ever met a house elf?"

"Well, no," Hermione said.

"Well, then do you think you have a frame of reference from which to make assumption about what's good for them or not? Your condemning hundreds of thousands of witches and wizards over the actions of two individuals!" he spat at her. Hermione felt awful, she was rather jumping the gun with S.P.E.W.

"Tell you what Hermione," Fred said, patting her arm.

"How about we tell you how to get into the kitchens," said George.

"And you can meet the Hogwarts house elves," continued Fred.

"Then you can see how they think they have the best jobs in the world," finished George.

Hermione smiled, a new plan forming in her mind. She would meet actual house elves, and see what they truly wanted.

Just then a brown owl fluttered down, depositing a letter to Harry, and flew off again. Harry tore open the letter, and Hermione leaned over to see what was written.

 _Harry._

 _I'm back in the country and well hidden. I want you to keep me posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts. Don't use Hedwig, keep changing owls, and don't worry about me, just watch out for yourself Don't forget what I said about your scar._

 _Sirius_

"Why d'you have to keep changing owls?" Ron asked in a low voice.

"Hedwig'll attract too much attention," said Faykan at once. "She stands out. A snowy owl that keeps returning to wherever he's hiding... I mean, they're not native birds, are they? Don't worry about school owls though Harry, you can use my ravens, they'll be a lot less conspicuous."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus frowned as the bell rang a half hour early for the student to prepare to greet the students from the other European wizarding schools. Honestly, Severus had very little interest in dealing with Karkaroff, Headmaster of Durmstrang and a fellow Death Eater, but Albus would insist upon it, on top of his other duties of potion making, teaching, and spying on Undol…

Speaking of the boy, Severus looked up to see that Undol hadn't left his seat, despite his bag and other items vanishing, along with his cloak and other clothes for the cold outdoors already on him, ready for the welcoming feast. "Yes?" Severus said irritably. What did the boy want to torment him with now?

"Sir," Undol said, standing and taking a few steps forward, "I was wondering if… that is, if you didn't mind of course… if you wouldn't mind…"

"Spit it out, Undol, I don't have all day…" Severus sneered irritably. Honestly, the timing of these students.

"I wanted to know if I could sometimes come and, you know… sometimes talk to you…" Severus raised an eyebrow. Why would a Gryffindor, _this_ Gryffindor of all people, want to talk with him on a consistent basis?

"And the reason you can't talk to _your_ Head of House is?" Severus responded snidely, hoping the boy would take the hint.

"Because Sir, you and I both know that Professor McGonagall doesn't actively talk with her students independently. And besides," the boy shifted, looking uncomfortable for a moment, "She'd never understand my concerns…"

"And you think I would, or would even want to waste my precious time chatting with a whining, moaning teenager?" Severus shot back.

Undol gave him a hurt look, and without saying another word, turned and left. Severus sighed in relief. Had the boy persisted, Severus did not know if he could have refused him for too much longer. Hadn't he sought the same thing when he was a Hogwarts?

Between Faykan and Lily, he had had all the people to listen to him that he had ever wanted. Perhaps if he hurried he could catch Undol before he left the dungeons…

No, no! If he spent time alone with Undol, Albus would expect him to wring answers from the boy, and that would only lead to long nights and many headaches for Severus. Yes, this was about him not wanting his time wasted; he had no concern that he would have had to betray the boy's trust if he accepted to talk with him…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

"Nearly six," said Ron, checking his watch and then staring down the drive that led to the front gates. "How d'you reckon they're coming? The train?"

"I doubt it," said Hermione.

The entire school was waiting in front of the school for the arrival of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, all arranged by house and year on the steps in front of the castle. Harry stood in the fourth row, between Faykan and Ron. Everyone was quietly speculating how the foreigners were going to arrive.

"How, then? Broomsticks?" Harry suggested, looking up at the starry sky.

"I don't think so... not from that far away...

"A Portkey?" Ron suggested. "Or they could Apparate, maybe you're allowed to do it under seventeen wherever they come from?"

"You can't Apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds, how often do I have to tell you?" said Hermione impatiently.

"Whatever it is," Faykan said, "It'll probably be flashy and dramatic…" Harry was inclined to agree. He remembered what Mr. Weasley had said back at the campsite before the Quidditch World Cup: 'always the same, we can't resist showing off when we get together...'

And then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers, "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

"Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.

"There!" yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.

Something large, much larger than a broomstick or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks, was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.

"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years, losing her head completely.

"Don't be stupid... it's a flying house!" said Dennis Creevey.

Dennis's guess was closer... a gigantic, powder blue, horse drawn carriage, the size of a large house, was soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.

The front three rows of students drew backward as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed, then, with an almighty crash it hit the ground, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery red eyes.

Harry just had time to see that the door of the carriage bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened. A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then Harry saw the largest woman he had ever seen in his life step out. The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.

Harry had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in his life, and that was Hagrid; he doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow, maybe simply because he was used to Hagrid, this woman seemed even more unnaturally large.

As she stepped into the light flooding from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive skinned face; large, black, liquid looking eyes; and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.

Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you," said Dumbledore.

"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.

Harry, whose attention had been focused completely upon Madame Maxime, now noticed that about a dozen boys and girls. By the look of them in their late teens, emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind Madame Maxime. They were shivering, which was unsurprising given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. From what Harry could see of them (they were standing in Madame Maxime's enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.

"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.

"He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"

"Warm up, I think," said Madame Maxime. She then gestured back toward the carriage. "My steeds require… err, forceful 'andling," she explained, "Zey are very strong..."

"I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," said Dumbledore, smiling.

"Very well," said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. "Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single malt whiskey?"

"It will be attended to," said Dumbledore, also bowing.

"Come," said Madame Maxime imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.

Thankfully, they only had to wait in the cold air several more minutes before a loud and oddly eerie noise could be heard drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed.

"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"

From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water, except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the center; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks, and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor…

What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the heart of the whirlpool... and then Harry saw the rigging...

"It's a mast!" he said to Ron, Faykan and Hermione.

Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.

People were disembarking; they could see their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship's portholes. All of them, Harry noticed, seemed to be built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle... but then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the entrance hall, he saw that their bulk was really due to the fact that they were wearing cloaks of some kind of shaggy, matted fur. But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing furs of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.

"Dumbledore!" he called heartily as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied. Karkaroff had a fruity, unctuous voice; when he stepped into the light pouring from the front doors of the castle they saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his white hair was short, and his goatee (finishing in a small curl) did not entirely hide his rather weak chin. When he reached Dumbledore, he shook hands with both of his own. "Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow, and Harry noticed that his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd. "How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor, come along, into the warmth... you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold..."

Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. As the boy passed, Harry caught a glimpse of a prominent curved nose and thick black eyebrows.

He didn't need the punch on the arm Ron gave him, or the hiss in his ear, to recognize that profile. "Harry… it's Krum!"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus smiled to himself as he chatted with Igor about trivialities concerning the tournament, but his mind was rapidly pulling ends together. Alastor had reported that Undol was becoming frazzled by the number of people watching him, helped along with repeated attempts at legilimency on Albus' part. His defenses were defiantly wearing thinner.

Now that the tournament was about to begin, the next phase of his ingenious plan could commence. Alastor was going to put the boy's name in the goblet of fire during the night, and if Albus knew Undol like he thought he did, he would be guaranteed to be chosen as champion. The added stresses and strains of the tournament upon everything else would finally reveal a crack in the boy's emotional armor, allowing Albus to shatter the child, and either discard or reforge him into another tool for the war against Voldemort.

Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now.

"The moment has come," Albus said, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket, just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation," there was a smattering of polite applause, "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

There was a much louder round of applause for Ludo than for Barty.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Albus continued, allowing his gaze to flit over Harry and his friends at the Gryffindor table, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

At the mention of the word "champions," the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. He smiled again at his ability to command an audiences attention as he said, "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch."

Argus walked over, carrying the jeweled casket that contained the Goblet of Fire to Albus. "As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Albus went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Albus tapped the casket with wand three times to open it, and pulled out the large, rough, wooden cup, its brim dancing with blue white flames.

Momentarily he sensed a powerful flare of anger from the direction of Undol, but what the reasoning was he did not know, but set aside the memory for later review.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," Albus continued, "Aspiring champions have twenty four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete."

Albus continued, explaining that he would be drawing an age line around the goblet to prevent anyone under the age of seventeen from entering. In reality, its main purpose was to prevent Harry from entering, as he was far too valuable to put in such danger, but Albus wasn't going to mention that to anyone.

"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."

As the student went off to their common rooms, Albus sent a pointed look at Alastor, who nodded his understanding of his mission. And with that, Albus went to retire himself, smiling at a plan that was about to come to fruition.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus was patrolling the corridors at around midnight, when he saw something peculiar in the entrance hall. Moody was standing near the Goblet of Fire, tipping pieces of parchment into it.

"Hello Snape," he said without turning around. 'Damn that blasted eye of his,' Severus thought as he stepped out of the shadow, "What are you doing, Moody," he sneered.

"Not that it's any of you're business, but I'm doing a job for Dumbledore, there's a name he wants entered for a student requested to be in the tournament, but cannot as he's in the Hospital Wing right now. Now, goodnight, Snape." And he limped away.

Severus had the feeling that Moody was flat out lying to him, but he could not prove his suspicions. But there was the fact that he distinctly saw Moody put two pieces of parchment in the goblet, as well as the muttering he had heard coming from the Ex-Auror's scarred lips.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned!**

 _So it begins, the tournament and its revolving plots. Albus starts his master plan to get Faykan to submit, and everything will start hitting the fan next chapter! cya next time! ~F_


	50. Y4-C6: The Hogwarts Champions

_Thanks to those who've reviewed, thing are progressing well. the Darth Veneficus trilogy is completed, and nearly finished in the final editing process, whereupon I will commence the editing of books 6 and 7 for Age of Magic. once those are complete, this story will shift to a more frequent posting schedule, and I will commence a new piece of writing, codenamed Project: Raven's Flight. many good things for the near future! ~F_

 **Chapter Six**

 **The Hogwarts Champions**

As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late. Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione; however, were not alone in rising much earlier than they usually did on weekends.

When they went down into the entrance hall, they saw about twenty people milling around it, some of them eating toast, all examining the Goblet of Fire. It had been placed in the center of the hall on the stool that normally bore the Sorting Hat. A thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction.

"Anyone put their name in yet?" Ron asked a third year girl eagerly.

"All the Durmstrang lot," she replied. "But I haven't seen anyone from Hogwarts yet."

"Bet some of them put it in last night after we'd all gone to bed," said Harry. "I would've if it had been me... wouldn't have wanted everyone watching. What if the goblet just gobbed you right back out again?"

Someone laughed behind them. Turning, he saw Fred, George, and Lee Jordan hurrying down the staircase, all three of them looking extremely excited.

"Done it," Fred said in a triumphant whisper to the four fourth years. "Just taken it."

"What?" said Ron.

"The Aging Potion, dung brains," said Fred.

"One drop each," said George, rubbing his hands together with glee. "We only need to be a few months older."

"We're going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins," said Lee, grinning broadly.

"I'm not sure this is going to work, you know," said Hermione warningly. "I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this."

Fred, George, and Lee ignored her. Harry felt that he knew what was going to happen.

"Ready?" Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. "C'mon, then… I'll go first…"

Harry watched, fascinated, as Fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket bearing the words Fred Weasley, Hogwarts. Fred walked right up to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty foot drop. Then, with the eyes of every person in the entrance hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line.

For a split second Harry thought it had worked, George certainly thought so, for he let out a yell of triumph and leapt after Fred, but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot putter. They landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.

The entrance hall rang with laughter. Even Fred and George joined in, once they had gotten to their feet and taken a good look at each other's beards.

"I did warn you," said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall. He surveyed Fred and George, his eyes twinkling. "I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr. Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours."

Harry, Ron and Hermione watched the twins set off up the stairs for the Hospital Wing, and still chortling, went in to breakfast. Harry turned to comment to Faykan, but saw that his best friend was glaring at Dumbledore's retreating back with such anger that Harry was surprised that the Headmaster didn't ignite on the spot.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, not wanting to attract too much attention to Faykan's mood.

"Everything…" Faykan said, but refused to elaborate, turning to stare angrily at the Goblet of Fire. Hermione and Ron were already heading to the Great Hall, and Harry turned to follow then, catching only the barest whisper from Faykan as the other boy turned to follow. "Tampering with a thing of power so wantonly… it's no wonder they all are failing…"

The live bats weren't the only things flying about the Great Hall this morning; rumors were circulating about who had entered to be the Hogwarts champion. The three main contenders seemed to be Warrington from Slytherin, Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff, and Angelina Johnson for Gryffindor.

"Well, I'm glad someone from Gryffindor's entering," said Hermione as they were finishing their bowls of porridge.

"Yeah, better Angelina than Pretty-Boy Diggory," said Seamus Finnigan, causing several nearby Hufflepuffs to scowl as they passed.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco caught up to the Gryffindors after breakfast as they left the Great Hall.

"What're we going to do today, then?" Ron was asking as they paused in the entrance hall.

"Well, I was thinking it was time for you all to try the Patronus charm," Faykan said, strangely moody. Despite this strange change of demeanor in their close friend, Draco couldn't help but beam; this was something he had been looking forward to.

"Excellent!" Hermione said, clapping her hands together, and they all made their way up to the Room of Requirement.

They only made it to the marble staircase when the front doors creaked open. They all turned back to see the students from Beauxbatons enter from the grounds. Those people gathered around the Goblet of Fire stood back to let them pass, watching eagerly. Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students and organized them into a line.

One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line and dropped their slips of parchment into the blue-white flames. As each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red and emitted sparks. One girl with silvery blond hair looked up at them after she dropped her name into the goblet. Draco felt something tug at his mind and threw his shield up quickly, but Ron wasn't so lucky.

He was staring, openmouthed at the girl as she rejoined her Headmistress, and didn't snap out of his trance until Harry laughed at his stupefied expression. "She's a Veela!" he said horsey. Hermione scoffed, but Draco noticed that many other boys had their heads turn toward the silver haired girl, so Ron might have been partially correct.

When all the Beauxbatons students had submitted their names, Madame Maxime led them back out of the hall and out onto the grounds again.

"What an insult to their history…" Faykan commented cryptically to himself as they continued their journey up to the Room of Requirement. Draco looked at Harry in concern, but the other Gryffindor merely shook his head, at just as much a loss as Draco was.

Upon entering, Draco heard the soothing sounds of a bubbling cauldron and turned to see one of Faykan's house elves stirring the potion Faykan had been slaving over for the last two months. The contents were a soft turquoise, and emitted a light vapor that was funneled away by the house elf's magic.

Hermione looked scathingly at Faykan after spotting the house elf, and Faykan raised his eyebrows at her, daring her to challenge him on house elf rights. Thankfully, Hermione's desire to learn a new spell gave her the strength to keep quiet about house elves, and they were able to start immediately.

Faykan began by warming them all up with their usual retinues of dueling, transfiguration, wandless magic, and healing training. Then he cleared everything away from the center area and spaced Draco, Hermione and Ron in the middle, facing both himself and Harry.

"All right, the incantation for the Patronus charm is, _expecto_ _patronum_ , but the real power behind the spell must come from yourself. You need to concentrate on a very power, very happy memory for the spell's best protection. If you'd care to demonstrate Harry..."

Harry smiled, then waved his wand, " _Expecto_ _patronum!_ " he cried, and a shining, silver stag erupted from his wand, and cantered around them all in wide circles. Hermione gasped in awe, while Ron whooped. Draco was also impressed, but restrained himself from such Gryffindorish acts as cheering.

"Thank you Harry." Faykan said as the stag Patronus dispersed. "Now I want each of you to find your happiest memories. Let it fill you up, bask in the light it gives you, and attempt the charm."

Draco thought hard. What made him happiest? There were many things in his past that made him happy, but none were nearly what Faykan had described at the same level as what Faykan described.

Digging deeper, Draco remembered the summer of last year, and the looks that young Ginny Weasley had sneaked at him during their trip to Diagon Alley. Draco had seen her several times this year, but hadn't really gotten to speak to her. The feelings he had felt were strange, like a soft burning in his stomach when their eyes met briefly. But were they truly happy thoughts? Draco decided to at least try and see if they were powerful enough.

"Ready?" Faykan asked after several minutes. They all nodded, and Faykan gestured at Hermione.

" _Expecto_ _patronum…_ " she said, flicking her wand out. Several tiny silvery wisps of smoke emerged from her wand, and faded immediately.

"Good attempt Hermione, but the memory you selected wasn't powerful enough though. Ron, you're next."

Ron raised his wand, " _Expecto_ _patronum!_ " silvery smoke gushed out of his wand, and after several seconds of Ron screwing his eyes in concentration, an animal leapt form from the mist. A small dog bounded across the floor, dancing around their legs with its tongue lolling wildly. Ron opened his eyes to look, and it vanished. "Aww, I didn't see it," he moaned.

"Wicked!" Harry exclaimed, while Faykan beamed at him, "It was a dog Ron, you just need to work on keeping the memory at the front of your mind, and it'll remain longer, really great job for a first try."

Faykan turned to Draco, and nodded. Draco drew a deep breath, focused on Ginny and said, " _Expecto_ _patronum…_ " long silver smoke strand poured out of his wand, but no animal emerged. After several moments, Draco lowered his wand, allowing the vapors to disperse. "Good, Draco; a strong memory, but not quite strong enough to form a corporeal Patronus."

Faykan kept them all at it for hours, while Harry assisted him. By the time Faykan called for them to stop, Hermione had achieved an animal Patronus as well: an otter. She could send it soaring around the air as if it was swimming in as river of wind.

Draco; however, was frustrated. He hadn't been able to make more than silver mist. Before he left to change for the feast, Harry pulled Draco aside to reassure him, "Don't fret Draco, I couldn't make an animal for a long time last year, you'll get it eventually." This lifted Draco's spirits slightly. Harry was the most powerful of them, and it had taken him most of a year to produce his stag.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus took his time eating during the Halloween feast, relishing the air of impatient expectation wafting from the students. Albus drug it out as long as he could, savoring the final calm before the inevitable storm that was about to strike when the champions were selected. Finally, he could wait no longer, and all noise died away as he stood.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," he said. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber," he indicated the door behind the staff table, "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

Albus then took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them all into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, blue whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting...

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it, the whole room gasped.

Albus caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue white.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."

A storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. Krum rose from the Slytherin table and slouched up past where Albus stood, turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.

"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause, "Knew you had it in you!"

The clapping and chatting died down quickly. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," Albus read, "is Fleur Delacour!" another storm of applause sounded. When Miss Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next... And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Albus pulled the third piece of parchment. Albus smiled as he saw the name written on it.

"The Hogwarts champion," he read, "is Faykan Undol!"

"WHAT!" Silence filled the Hall, everyone turning to look at Undol, who stood, his eyes flashing in anger, staring right at Albus. Albus could feel the boy's magic rising off him in waves, but he simply smiled, beckoning for the boy to approach.

"He's a cheat! He's not even seventeen yet!" several students called as the boy staggered toward the Head table, his fists clenched in suppressed fury

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called indifferently as at last the tumult died down, masking his joy with concern. "Well… we now have our three champions, even if one is underage. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real…"

But Albus noticed the Goblet of fire turn red a fourth time. He widened his eyes in shock. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. Unable to believe this was happening, Albus reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. 'No…' he thought in despair, it couldn't be, he had planned so carefully for this to not happen.

"Harry Potter." He called in a shaky voice.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus followed Minerva, Albus and the rest of the Triwizard officials into the trophy room, his mind spinning with possibilities. How could Undol have gotten past the Headmaster's age line? His thoughts were disturbed when Albus opened the trophy room door to the sounds of miniature explosions.

Undol seemed to be, of all things, throwing a fit. He was roaring at the top of his lungs, while glass and metal went flying in all directions, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR NAME CAME OUT OF THE GRAIL TOO?!"

Severus widened his eyes when he saw the full extend of the destruction. Krum and Miss Delacour were huddled by the fireplace, while Undol faced Harry in the center of what looked like the aftermath of a hurricane. All the glass cabinets were shattered, their contents scattered across the entire room in various stages of damage. Even still he did not miss the odd title that Undol had given the Goblet of Fire… the Grail, it was certainly an odd thing to misconstrued. The Goblet of Fire was an ancient magical object, yes, but not nearly old or powerful enough to be that magnificent object of great power and lore.

"Mr. Undol please calm yourself!" Minerva chided as they approached. The boy merely glared at them all in return, power wafting off him in waves and the rest of the cabinets starting to shudder.

"Madame Maxime!" said Miss Delacour as she spotted her headmistress. "is zis true? Are we to compete wiz zese little boyz?"

"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" she said imperiously. "I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions, or have I not read the rules carefully enough?" He gave a short and nasty laugh.

"C'est impossible," said Madame Maxime, whose enormous hand with its many superb opals was now resting upon Fleur's shoulder. "Ogwarts cannot 'ave two champions. It is most injust."

"We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff, his steely smile still in place, though his eyes were colder than ever. "Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools."

"WE ARE NOT COMPETING!" Undol yelled, catching them all by surprise, as another cabinet shattered at the force of his anger. Potter was shaking slightly, obviously confused as to what had happened to land them in the tournament.

Albus ignored Undol, but chose to question Potter, "Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire, Harry?" he asked calmly.

"No," said Potter.

"Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?" said Professor Dumbledore persistently.

"No," the boy replied vehemently.

"Ah, but of course 'e is lying!" cried Madame Maxime.

"He could not have crossed the Age Line," said Professor McGonagall sharply. "I am sure we are all agreed on that…"

"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line," said Madame Maxime, shrugging.

"It is possible, of course," said Dumbledore politely.

"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake!" said Professor McGonagall angrily. "Really, what nonsense! Neither of these boys could not have crossed the line themselves, and as Professor Dumbledore believes that Potter did not persuade an older student to do it for him, I'm sure that should be good enough for everybody else!"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW OUR NAMES GOT IN, I REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE, OR TO ALLOW HARRY TO EITHER!" Undol bellowed, his voice started to make even the castle floor quake with the magical force behind it. There was no doubt in anyone's mind as to why that boy had been chosen.

"Unfortunately," Severus piped up suddenly, "What you do or do not wish is not of importance at this juncture, so please BE QUIET!" Severus shouted back, shocking the boy into silence. A glass cup on the shelf behind Severus exploded, however, but no one paid any heed.

"Mr. Crouch... Mr. Bagman," said Karkaroff, his voice unctuous once more, "you are our, err… objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?"

Bagman wiped his round, boyish face with his handkerchief and looked at Mr. Crouch, who was standing outside the circle of the firelight, his face half hidden in shadow. He looked slightly eerie, the half darkness making him look much older, giving him an almost skull-like appearance. When he spoke, however, it was in his usual curt voice.

"We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."

"Well, Barty knows the rule book back to front," said Bagman, beaming and turning back to Karkaroff and Madame Maxime, as though the matter was now closed.

"You mean…" Undol said in a small voice, his anger melting into agitated fear, "That even though neither of us entered our names, we _have_ to compete anyway, even if we do not wish to?"

Severus felt a small pang of sympathy for the boy. Undol had never been one for showing off in class, much like Severus himself, but now someone had thrust him forcefully into this dangerous, and very public, setting.

Karkaroff continued to rage and bluster at Albus about Hogwarts having two champions, finally threatening to leave immediately.

"Empty threat, Karkaroff," growled a voice from near the door. "You can't leave your champion now. He's got to compete. They've all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said… convenient, eh?"

Moody had just entered the room. He limped toward the fire, and with every right step he took, there was a loud clunk.

"Convenient?" said Karkaroff. "I'm afraid I don't understand you, Moody."

Severus rolled his eyes mentally, Karkaroff was never very bright, hence his being captured so easily at the end of the first war.

"Don't you?" said Moody quietly. "It's very simple, Karkaroff. Someone put these boys' names in that goblet knowing they'd have to compete if it came out."

"Evidently, someone 'oo wished to give 'Ogwarts two bites at ze apple!" said Madame Maxime.

"I quite agree, Madame Maxime," said Karkaroff, bowing to her. "I shall be lodging complaints with the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards…"

"If anyone's got reason to complain, it's these two," growled Moody pointing at Undol and Potter, "and Mr. Undol is making more than enough noise for the pair of them, not that anyone's listening."

"Why should 'e complain?" burst out Miss Delacour, stamping her foot. "E 'as ze chance to compete, 'asn't 'e? We 'ave all been 'oping to be chosen for weeks and weeks! Ze honor for our schools! A thousand Galleons in prize money, zis is a chance many would die for!"

"Maybe someone's hoping one or both of them _are_ going to die for it," said Moody, with the merest trace of a growl.

"How this situation arose, we do not know," said Dumbledore, speaking to everyone gathered in the room. "It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Both Faykan and Harry have been chosen to compete in the Tournament. This, therefore, they will do...

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr -"

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it."

Dumbledore waited, but Madame Maxime did not speak, she merely glared. She wasn't the only one either. Snape looked furious; Karkaroff livid; Bagman, however, looked rather excited.

"Well, shall we crack on, then?" he said, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room. "Got to give our champions their instructions, haven't we? Barty, want to do the honors?"

Mr. Crouch seemed to come out of a deep reverie.

"Yes," he said, "instructions. Yes... the first task..."

"The first task is designed to test your daring," he told Potter, Undol, Miss Delecour, and Krum, "so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard... very important. "The first task will take place on November the twenty fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges.

"The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests."

Mr. Crouch turned to look at Dumbledore. "I think that's all, is it, Albus?"

"I think so," the Headmaster replied.

Severus stalked away, mildly worried about the two fourteen year olds. Naturally, if Undol's track record was anything to go by, he would keep Potter safe, but still… Undol had asked to speak with Severus on occasion, didn't he? Perhaps Severus could change his mind, graciously, and help nudge the two boys in the right direction to keep them both alive through this ordeal. Not because he cared for the boys, naturally, but to honor the memories of his two best friends now long dead.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

"Harry, Faykan, I suggest you go up to bed," said Dumbledore, smiling at both of them. "I am sure all of Gryffindor house is waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise."

Harry nodded, and glanced at Faykan, who was glaring bitterly at Dumbledore. Harry tugged his arm, and they left together.

The Great Hall was deserted now; the candles had burned low, giving the jagged smiles of the pumpkins an eerie, flickering quality.

Faykan was scowling the entire way up the marble staircase, muttering angrily under his breath. "Fay?" Harry said quietly, worried. Faykan didn't respond, wrapped in his brooding. No one seemed to believe that neither of them had put themselves up for the tournament. Faykan had made it clear that he had no desire for such things. Had Harry? Yes, he'd thought about it... he'd fantasized about it... but it had been a joke, really, an idle sort of dream... he'd never really, seriously considered entering.

But someone else had considered it... someone else had wanted both him and Faykan in the tournament, and had made sure they were entered. Why? To give them a treat? He didn't think so, somehow...

To see them be made fools of? Well, they were likely to get their wish…

But to get them killed?

Was Moody just being his usual paranoid self? Couldn't someone have put Harry's or Faykan's names in the goblet as a trick, a practical joke? Did anyone really want either of them dead?

Harry was able to answer that at once. Yes, someone wanted him dead; someone had wanted him dead ever since he had been a year old... Lord Voldemort. But that raised even more questions, like who then put Faykan's name in? And how had Voldemort managed to ensure that Harry's name got in the Goblet of Fire?

Harry got a shock to find him and Faykan facing the Fat Lady already. He had barely noticed where his feet were carrying him. It was also a surprise to see that she was not alone in her frame.

"Well, well, well," said the Fat Lady, "Violet's just told me everything. Who's just been chosen as school champions, then?"

"Balderdash," said Harry dully.

"It most certainly isn't!" said the pale witch indignantly.

"No, no, Vi, it's the password," said the Fat Lady soothingly, and she swung forward on her hinges to let them into the common room.

The blast of noise that met Harry's ears when the portrait opened almost knocked him and Faykan backward. Next thing he knew, they were both being wrenched inside the common room by about a dozen pairs of hands, and were facing the whole of Gryffindor House, all of whom were screaming, applauding, and whistling.

"You should've told us you'd both entered!" bellowed Fred; he looked half annoyed, half deeply impressed.

"How did you do it without getting beards? Brilliant!" roared George.

"We didn't," Harry said. "I don't know how…"

But Angelina had now swooped down upon them; "Oh if it couldn't be me, at least it's a pair of Gryffindors…"

"How'd you manage to both get in?" asked Katie Bell, another of the Gryffindor Chasers.

"We've got food, come and have some…"

Nobody wanted to hear that they weren't hungry; nobody wanted to hear that they hadn't put their names in the goblet; not one single person seemed to have noticed that Faykan was ready to explode again in anger... Lee Jordan had unearthed a pair of Gryffindor banners from somewhere, and he insisted on draping them around Harry and Faykan like cloaks.

They couldn't get away; whenever Harry tried to sidle over to the staircase up to the dormitories, the crowd around him closed ranks, forcing another butterbeer on him, stuffing crisps and peanuts into his hands... Everyone wanted to know how they had done it, how they had tricked Dumbledore's Age Line and managed to get both their names to emerge from goblet...

"We didn't," he said, over and over again, "I don't know how it happened."

But for all the notice anyone took, he might just as well not have answered at all.

"ENOUGH!" Faykan bellowed finally, after nearly half an hour. "LEAVE US ALONE!" the windows, butterbeer bottles, and nearly everything made of glass in the room exploded, showering everyone in shards. Faykan seized Harry's wrist and stormed to the dormitory, knocking the Creevey brothers aside as they attempted to waylay them at the foot of the stairs.

Everyone was too terrified at the display of magic to follow, so Harry and Faykan reached the dormitory unaccosted. Harry spotted Ron on his bed as Faykan slammed the door behind them.

"Where've you been?" Harry said.

"Oh hello," said Ron.

He was grinning, but it was a very odd, strained sort of grin. Harry suddenly became aware that he was still wearing the scarlet Gryffindor banner that Lee had tied around him. He hastened to take it off, but it was knotted very tightly. Ron lay on the bed without moving, watching Harry struggle to remove it. Faykan torn the banner around him off quickly and then assisted Harry in freeing himself from the other.

"So," Ron said, when they had finally removed the banners and thrown them into a corner. "Congratulations."

"What d'you mean, congratulations?" said Harry, staring at Ron. There was definitely something wrong with the way Ron was smiling: It was more like a grimace.

"Well... no one else got across the Age Line," said Ron. "Not even Fred and George. What did you use? The Invisibility Cloak? Your animagus form?"

"The Invisibility Cloak wouldn't have got me over that line," said Harry slowly. "Neither would being an animal."

"Oh right," said Ron. "I thought you might've told me if it was the cloak... because it would've covered both of us, wouldn't it? But you found another way, did you?"

"Listen," said Faykan, struggling to contain his anger, "We didn't put our names in the Grail. Someone else did it."

Ron raised his eyebrows. "What would they do that for?"

"Let's think Ron," Faykan said sarcastically, "Why was the tournament called off for so long? Hmm?"

Ron's eyebrows rose so high that they were in danger of disappearing into his hair. But it seemed that he hadn't listened to what Faykan had said.

"It's okay, you know, you can tell me the truth," he said. "If you don't want everyone else to know, that's fine. But I don't know why you're bothering to lie, you didn't get into trouble for it, did you? That friend of the Fat Lady's, that Violet, she's already told us Dumbledore's letting you both enter. A thousand Galleons prize money, eh? And you don't have to do end-of-year tests either..."

"We didn't put our names in that goblet!" said Harry, starting to feel angry.

"Yeah, okay," said Ron, in exactly the same skeptical tone as Madam Maxime. "Only you said this morning you'd have done it last night, and no one would've seen you... I'm not stupid, you know."

"You're doing a really good impression of it," Faykan snapped.

"Yeah?" said Ron, and there was no trace of a grin, forced or otherwise, on his face now. "You want to get to bed. I expect you'll need to be up early tomorrow for a photo-call or something."

And he wrenched the hangings shut around his four-poster, leaving them standing there by the door, staring at the dark red velvet curtains, now hiding one of the few people Harry had been sure would believe them.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _So, no one likely was surprised that Faykan was chosen, nor that most of the aftermath happened without actually deterring from canon, but let's be honest. half the people associated with Hogwarts want the two boys in the tournament, and no amount of power can stop the supposed "binding magical contract." Still, notice some of the small details?a certain chalice of some meaningful significance much?_


	51. Y4-C7: Boy-who-lived… to be Slandered

_Much thanks to those who reviewed the last Chapter. I am back on the cycle of editing, and will be completely finished with the Veneficus Trilogy within the ~2 week cycle, which will begin the advent of the final edits of books 6 and 7 of AoM. Much greatness to be had, and I am thankful to all your support! ~F_

 **Chapter Seven**

 **Boy-who-lived… to be Slandered**

Draco wasn't surprised when Harry and Faykan didn't come down for breakfast on Sunday. What did surprise him was seeing Ron, sitting alone at the Gryffindor table, pigging out like he was going to die tomorrow. Hermione ducked inside, glared at Ron, but only grabbed a large pile of toast and departed again. Draco decided to follow her, even though it was pretty obvious where Harry and Faykan had holed up.

Faykan was brewing furiously, while Harry sat gloomily nearby, watching as Faykan dumped a handful of white powder into the potion, stirring clockwise eight times, and then dropping a slimy looking organ in. Hermione was talking absently to them, trying to reassure them.

"Well, of course I knew you both hadn't entered yourselves," she was saying as Draco closed the door behind him, "The look on your faces when Dumbledore read out your names! But the question is who did put it in? Because Moody's right... I don't think any student could have done it... they'd never be able to fool the Goblet, or get over Dumbledore's…"

"Have you seen Ron?" Harry interrupted.

Hermione hesitated. Faykan slammed the stirring rod on the table at the sound of the name, and Draco pieced together what exactly had happened.

"Does the stupid jealous git still think we entered ourselves?" Faykan said snidely.

"Well... no, I don't think so... not really," said Hermione awkwardly.

"What's that supposed to mean, 'not really'?" Fay challenged angrily.

"Well, you said it yourself, he's jealous," Hermione said despairingly.

"Jealous?" Harry said incredulously, "Jealous of what? He wants to make a prat of himself in front of the whole school, does he?"

"Look," said Hermione patiently, "it's always one of you who get all the attention, you both know it is. I know it's not your fault," she added quickly, seeing Faykan open his mouth furiously. "I know you don't ask for it... but, well… you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friends, and he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many..."

"Great," said Harry bitterly. "Really great. Tell him from me I'll swap any time he wants. Tell him from me he's welcome to it... People gawping at me everywhere I go..."

"Enough of this," Faykan interrupted angrily, "I don't want to hear about _him_ anymore today. Lets get to work, Draco, Patronus charm, over there, go. Hermione, healing, you're still having slight problems sealing cuts properly. Harry, write to Sirius, we need his advice, off you get." Faykan said dismissively, directing each of them to their stations while he turned back to the potion.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

If Harry had thought that matters would improve once everyone got used to the idea of him and Faykan both being champion, the following day showed him how mistaken he was. They could no longer avoid the rest of the school once they were back at lessons and it as clear that the rest of the school, just like the Gryffindors, thought they both had entered themselves for the tournament. Unlike the Gryffindors, however, they were not completely enthusiastic about it.

The Hufflepuffs, who were usually on excellent terms with the Gryffindors, remained congenially friendly outwardly to both Harry and Faykan, but one Herbology lesson shed light on what they truly felt.

Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley admitted that most of the Hufflepuffs supported Faykan, thinking that as he was the 'true' champion of Hogwarts he was more deserving, but they mentioned that they personally would support Harry just as much. Ron didn't talk to either of them during the lesson, despite Hermione's attempts to start conversations between the four of them.

He would have been looking forward to seeing Hagrid under normal circumstances, but Care of Magical Creatures meant seeing the Slytherins too, the first time he would come face-to-face with them since becoming a champion.

Predictably, Nott arrived at Hagrid's cabin with his familiar sneer firmly in place.

"Ah, look, boys, it's the champions," he said to Crabbe and Goyle the moment he got within earshot. "Got your autograph books? Better get a signature now, because I doubt they're going to be around much longer... Half the Triwizard champions have died... how long d'you reckon you're going to last, Potter? Ten minutes into the first task's my bet."

Crabbe and Goyle guffawed sycophantically, but Nott had to stop there, because Hagrid emerged from the back of his cabin balancing a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large Blast-Ended Skrewt. To the class's horror, Hagrid proceeded to explain that the reason the skrewts had been killing one another was an excess of pent-up energy, and that the solution would be for each student to fix a leash on a skrewt and take it for a short walk. The only good thing about this plan was that it distracted Nott completely.

"Take this thing for a walk?" he repeated in disgust, staring into one of the boxes. "And where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end, or the sucker?"

"Roun' the middle," said Hagrid, demonstrating. "Err… yeh might want ter put on yer dragon hide gloves, jus' as an extra precaution, like. Harry, Faykan, yeh both come here an' help me with this big one...

Hagrid's real intention, however, was to talk to them away from the rest of the class. He waited until everyone else had set off with their skrewts, then turned to face them and said, very seriously, "So… yer competin', huh… In the tournament… School champions…"

"Unfortunately…" Faykan replied sulkily.

Hagrid's beetle-black eyes looked very anxious under his wild eyebrows.

"No idea who put yeh in fer it?

"You believe we didn't do it, then?" said Harry, concealing with difficulty the rush of gratitude he felt at Hagrid's words.

"Course I do," Hagrid grunted. "Yeh say it wasn' you, an' I believe yeh, an' Dumbledore believes yer, an' all."

"Wish I knew who did do it," said Harry bitterly.

"I have a suspicion…" Faykan muttered angrily under his breath.

"Ah, I don' know, boys," Hagrid sighed suddenly, looking back down at them with a worried expression on his face. "School champions... everythin' seems ter happen ter you two, doesn' it?"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus looked up when a knock sounded on his private chamber doors. It was late, far past curfew, but he had said in the note he slipped to Undol that he could come at any time he was free. Sighing, Severus rose, setting aside the papers he was grading, and opened the door partially. The large black fox slinked its was inside, and stared at Severus with those piercing blue eyes until he reclosed the door. Only then did they boy change back into a human.

"I'm sorry for coming so late Professor, but…" Undol began but Severus held up his hand to forestall excuses.

"I do not care your reasoning Mr. Undol, I am aware that you are very busy, but in the future try to give me some warning of when you intend to 'drop by'," he admonished.

"Yes sir." He said, grinning slightly. Severus frowned, why had he agreed to this nonsense? Clearly he was being possessed if he had actually felt sympathy for a student, let alone a Gryffindor.

"So, let's get this over with, what's troubling you so severely Mr. Undol." Severus said, reseating himself in his leather armchair. He still couldn't believe that he was playing therapist for the boy. Undol sat on the couch in front of Severus's empty fireplace; he never felt the need to use it, as warming charms was far easier.

"What isn't troubling me would be more accurate, sir," he said, sighing dejectedly, "Harry, the tournament, Nott, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Moody, you, Voldemort…"

"Don't say the name," Severus said sharply, but Undol rolled his eyes. Severus then registered that Undol was worrying over him, but pushed the thoughts aside, "You seem to worry a great deal about Mr. Potter's well being, why is that?" he said, changing the subject.

"Oh, I think you know why… _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord_ etc. etc." the boy said dismissively.

"But he seems to be much more than that to you…" Severus persisted, rationalizing that he defiantly wasn't interested for personal reasons.

"He's my best friend; I love him like a brother, so naturally I'm worried about him. You've seen how much shite we get ourselves into over the years. We've both nearly died at least twice a year now."

Severus nodded; it was true that they seemed to attract an extraordinary amount of trouble consistently.

"And now with this stupid bloody tournament, not only are we both in danger _again_ , but now some of our friends are turning on us, and with all the people watching and following me around, and Nott making comments whenever he can, I don't know how much longer I can control myself." He continued, and Severus noticed that his hands were shaking. Clearly Dumbledore's scheme of unraveling the boy was working far too well.

"I'm scared Professor." They boy said, his voice starting to wavier and tears forming in his eyes, "I'm so scared that I might lose myself and hurt someone, hurt Harry! I couldn't live with myself if that happened…" Undol broke down into sobs, and Severus sighed, pulling a Calming Draught out of his robe pocket. He knelt next to Undol and pressed the vial to the boy's lips, tilting it back as Undol obediently swallowed the liquid.

Slowly the boy' sobs dwindled, "Thank you," Undol managed to mumble after he dried his tears on the sleeve of his pajamas.

"Mr. Undol, what makes you think that you alone need to carry the weight of Potter's safety, there are many wizards both older and wiser than you that could…"

To Severus' astonishment, the boy started laughing, boiling angry laughter that carried deep resentment in it, "You mean like _Saint_ Dumbledore, who left him to rot at his horrible muggle relatives for ten years, and who's still making him return there every year. The same man who left the Philosopher's stone to be saved by eleven year olds? Who left the school when there was a basilisk on the loose; promptly returning _after_ it was killed? Who allowed a supposed wanted criminal break into school grounds, twice directly into the castle itself? The same daft old bastard who not only allowed two fourteen year olds to participate in a highly dangerous tournament, but arranged for at least one of them, if not both, to be entered secretly! No Severus, I do not trust Dumbledore to care about Harry in the slightest."

Undol jumped up, a small angry smile spreading across his face, "Thanks Professor, it feels real good to get these feelings off my chest." He said as he bounded to the door. "I'll send you a note if I want to talk again, alright. Good night Professor." And he closed the door softly behind him, leaving a quite and rather dumbstruck Severus to reconsider why he had agreed to this nonsense of playing mind healer.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry moaned as he and Faykan were led by Collin Creevey from their Potions class to some destination unknown where Mr. Bagman waited to have a photo shoot. Harry shuddered at the thought of more publicity, but had no choice in the matter. Professor Snape had frowned when Collin came to collect them both, but had released them without a fuss. Harry wondered what had changed, last year Snape would probably have refused to let anyone leave his class early, school champions or not.

"It's amazing, isn't it, Harry?" said Colin, acting as though Faykan wasn't present. "Isn't it, though? You being champion?"

"Yeah, really amazing," said Harry heavily as they set off toward the steps into the entrance hall. "What do they want photos for, Colin?"

"The Daily Prophet, I think!"

"Great," said Faykan dully.

"Good luck!" said Colin when they had reached the right room. Faykan pushed the door open without knocking.

They found themselves in a fairly small classroom; most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle; three of them, however, had been placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and covered with a long length of velvet. Five chairs had been set behind the velvet covered desks, and Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch Harry had never seen before, who was wearing magenta robes, and behind those chairs on a large pedestal stood the Goblet of Fire. Faykan started to fume just at the sight of the object, and Harry had to put a hand on his best friends shoulder to steady him.

Viktor Krum was standing moodily in a corner as usual and not talking to anybody. Fleur looked a good deal happier than Harry had seen her so far; she kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. A paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.

Bagman suddenly spotted Harry and Faykan, got up quickly, and bounded forward.

"Ah, here they are! Champion numbers three and four! In you come, boys, in you come... nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment…"

"Wand weighing?" Harry repeated nervously.

"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead," said Bagman. "The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter," he added, gesturing toward the witch in magenta robes. "She's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet..."

"Maybe not that small, Ludo," said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry.

Her hair was set in elaborate and curiously rigid curls that contrasted oddly with her heavy jawed face. She wore jeweled spectacles. The thick fingers clutching her crocodile skin handbag ended in two inch nails, painted crimson.

"I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?" she said to Bagman, but still gazing fixedly at Harry. "The youngest champion, you know... to add a bit of color?"

"Certainly!" cried Bagman. "That is, if Harry has no objection?"

"Err…" said Harry.

"Absolutely not," Faykan answered for him

Rita Skeeter frowned, looking down at Faykan, who glared back at her. "Nonsense, I sure Harry wouldn't mind a short interview," she said, reaching to take Harry's arm in her talon-nailed hands. However, she withdrew hastily when Faykan's wand materialized in her face, sparks flying from its tip in the heat of Faykan's anger.

"I _said_ , absolutely not…" Faykan hissed at her in a low voice.

"My, my, what's this about?" Dumbledore had entered the room.

Faykan lowered his wand slowly, and Rita Skeeter moved back over to her photographer, "Nothing, Dumbledore, just a little misunderstanding," she said quickly, smiling widely. Harry counted three gold teeth.

"Well, alright, come along boys. The Weighing of the Wands is about to start." Dumbledore said cheerfully. Harry and Faykan joined Krum and Fleur near the velvet covered table, where four of the five judges were now sitting, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, and Ludo Bagman. Rita Skeeter settled herself down in a corner; Harry saw her slip a piece of parchment out of her bag, spread it on her knee, suck the end of an acid green quill, and place it on top of the parchment.

"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judges' table and talking to the champions. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."

Harry looked around, and with a jolt of surprise saw an old wizard with large, pale eyes standing quietly by the window. Harry had met Mr. Ollivander before; he was the wand maker from whom Harry and Faykan had bought their own wands over three years ago in Diagon Alley.

"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.

Fleur Delacour swept over to Mr. Ollivander and handed him her wand.

"Hmm..." he said.

He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks. Then he held it chose to his eyes and examined it carefully.

"Yes," he said quietly, "nine and a half inches... inflexible… rosewood... and containing... dear me..."

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a Veela," said Fleur. "One of my grandmuzzer's."

So Fleur was part Veela, thought Harry, making a mental note to tell Ron... then he remembered that Ron wasn't speaking to him.

"Yes," said Mr. Ollivander, "yes, I've never used Veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands... however, to each his own, and if this suits you…"

Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, " _Orchideous!_ " and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip.

"Very well, very well, it's in fine working order," said Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. "Mr. Undol, you next."

Fleur glided back to her seat, watching Faykan with interest as he passed her.

"Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it?" said Mr. Ollivander, with much more enthusiasm, as Faykan handed over his wand. "Yes, I remember it well. Giant eagle feather… eleven inches… elm… rather rigid. But… what are these burn marks from?"

"Black fire, I was knocked into some first year, I almost died…" Faykan said, glancing at Dumbledore with what Harry thought was a look of mildly repressed fury.

"Dear, dear, these marks will never come out of the wood, but it still functions properly?" Mr. Ollivander asked.

"Perfectly," Faykan responded and Mr. Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the tip of Faykan's wand, pronounced himself satisfied, and then said, "Mr. Krum, if you please."

Viktor Krum got up and slouched, round-shouldered and duck footed, toward Mr. Ollivander. He thrust out his wand and stood scowling, with his hands in the pockets of his robes.

"Hmm," said Mr. Ollivander, "this is a Gregorovitch creation, unless I'm much mistaken? A fine wand maker, though the styling is never quite what I... however..."

He lifted the wand and examined it minutely, turning it over and over before his eyes.

"Yes... hornbeam and dragon heartstring?" he shot at Krum, who nodded. "Rather thicker than one usually sees... quite rigid... ten and a quarter inches... _Avis!_ " The hornbeam wand let off a blast hike a gun, and a number of small, twittering birds flew out of the end and through the open window into the watery sunlight.

"Good," said Mr. Ollivander, handing Krum back his wand, "Which leaves... Mr. Potter."

Harry got to his feet and walked past Krum to Mr. Ollivander. He handed over his wand.

"Aaaah, yes," said Mr. Ollivander, his pale eyes suddenly gleaming. "Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember."

Harry could remember too. He remembered the day he had received his wand and learn that it shared a core with Lord Voldemort's wand. Mr. Ollivander had said that he expected great things from Harry.

Harry had never shared this piece of information with anybody. He was very fond of his wand, and as far as he was concerned its relation to Voldemort's wand was something it couldn't help, rather as he couldn't help being related to Aunt Petunia. However, he really hoped that Mr. Ollivander wasn't about to tell the room about it. Currently only Mr. Ollivander, Harry himself, and Faykan knew about it.

Mr. Ollivander spent much longer examining Harry's wand than anyone else's. Eventually, however, he made a fountain of wine shoot out of it, and handed it back to Harry, announcing that it was still in perfect condition.

"Thank you all," said Dumbledore, standing up at the judges' table. "You may go back to your lessons now, or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end…"

Feeling that at last something had gone right today, Harry got up to leave, but the man with the black camera jumped up and cleared his throat.

"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" cried Bagman excitedly. "All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?"

"Err, yes, let's do those first," said Rita Skeeter, whose eyes were upon Harry again, "and then perhaps some individual shots."

The photographs took a long time. But finally, after many changes in grouping and several individual shots each, they were free to go.

Faykan was silent as they left, and when Harry glanced at him, he was smuggling something fairly large into his bag. Harry widened his eyes as he caught a glimpse of wood. There was no way that Faykan had managed to swipe the Goblet of Fire with everyone there watching them.

Faykan caught Harry's eye, and said nothing as he finished clasping his bag once more, almost as though daring Harry to challenge him about it. Harry was not about to step on that detonation waiting to happen, and kept his mouth shut.

Together, Harry and Faykan went down to the Great Hall for a quick dinner, and then returned to the Room of Requirement. They found one of the many black ravens Faykan had called to Hogwarts waiting for Harry, a scroll of parchment clutched in its beak. It was from Sirius:

 _Harry,_

 _I can't say everything I would like to in a letter, it's too risky in case this bird, rather magnificent plan to use ravens by the way, is intercepted - we need to talk face-to-face. Can you ensure that you are alone or with just your closest friends by the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock in the morning on the 22nd of November?_

 _I know better than anyone that you can look after yourself and while you're around Dumbledore and Moody I don't think anyone will be able to hurt you. However, someone seems to be having a good try at both you and Faykan. Entering you both in that tournament would have been very risky, especially right under Dumbledore's nose._

 _Be on the watch, Harry. I still want to hear about anything unusual. Let me know about the 22nd of November as quickly as you can._

 _Sirius_

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione noticed the unease on both Faykan's and Harry's faces over the next two weeks. The first task was drawing closer, and they had no idea what was expected of them.

In the meantime, life was becoming steadily worse for them both, as Rita Skeeter published her piece about the tournament, more as a highly colored and very inaccurate story of Harry's life.

Much of the front page had been given over to a picture of Harry; the article (continuing on pages two, six, and seven) had been all about Harry, the names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions (misspelled) had been squashed into the last line of the article, and Faykan hadn't been mentioned at all, at least as a champion.

The lies that foul woman had spun about poor Harry made Hermione sick. Not only had she made up false quotes from Harry himself, but she had twisted words that others had said about him.

' _Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school._ '

Sure, Hermione had received her share of abuse from the Slytherins, Pansy Parkinson in specific, but it paled in comparison to what Harry was going through. Coupling this with the fact that Ron was still refusing to speak to him or Faykan, and Hermione feared that Harry was past due for an emotional breakdown.

Hermione was sitting alone in the library, she had felt it prudent to give Faykan and Harry some time alone that they desperately needed. They were probably demolishing things in the Room of Requirement even now to relieve the strain of the last month. She turned slightly in her char, and noticed the Durmstrang champion, Victor Krum, watching her from the other side of the room, his group of infatuated girls giggling as they hid behind bookcases. Hermione rolled her eyes; honestly he was just a Quidditch player. Hermione suddenly remembered that there was a Hogsmeade weekend just before the first task, perhaps she could get Ron, Faykan and Harry to at least speak to each other, or possibly make up then.

Hermione gathered her books and left the library quickly, passing a frowning Krum in the process. She hurried up to the seventh floor and into the Room of Requirement. What she saw stunned her into awed silence.

Faykan, Harry and Draco, all stripped from the waist up, were battling full out in the center of the room, swords flashing and spells flying as they danced across the floor. Sweat poured from their faces as they attack, dodged, parried, and shouted their incantations. It looked like both Draco and Harry were teamed up against Faykan, but the fight was still fairly balanced.

Hermione watched Faykan's face as he grit his teeth in concentration, blocking a strike from Harry as he fired a curse at Draco, who raised a shield to defend himself in seconds. On and on they went, trading spells and blows back and forth until Harry caught Faykan's sword hand with an _Expelliarmus_ , sending the blade flying. He attempted to follow with a thrust of his own weapon, but Faykan twisted, kicking Harry in the back to push past and summoning his sword back to him.

The contest finally concluded with the combined efforts of Harry and Draco, who sent a barrage of spells at Faykan, succeeding at hitting with another disarming charm to his wand, and a stinging hex to his leg which caused him to trip into Harry. This sent them both sprawling to the ground, Faykan landing atop Harry. Draco was laughing at them as they attempted to disentangle themselves from the other. They finally stood, Faykan blushing madly, but Hermione suspected the real reasons for his embarrassment.

"Oh, hello Hermione." he called to direct attention away from himself. Now that they weren't moving, Hermione could get a good look at them. She had to admit, the view wasn't bad. The combination of flying and this training had done wonders for all three boys' physiques. They were all muscularly thin, and if Hermione wasn't set that she was going to be 'just friends' with them she'd defiantly have found any of them immensely attractive.

"Hello Fay, Draco, Harry." She said as they started pulling their clothes back on. "There's a Hogsmeade visit tomorrow, I think it'll do you two some good to get out of the castle for a bit." She suggested casually to Faykan and Harry.

She turned, trying to plant another image in her mind rather than the sight of all three boys' muscles, and widened her eyes at seeing an object on the small table by the _palantir_. Since when did Faykan get his hands on the Goblet of Fire?

"What about _Ron_ , though?" Faykan said, still breathing hard from their workout. "Don't you want to go with him?"

"Oh... well..." Hermione went slightly pink as she was forcefully brought back to the conversation at hand, although she very much wanted to ask about the Goblet. "I thought we might meet up with him in the Three Broomsticks..."

"No," said Harry flatly.

"Oh C'mon, this is so stupid…" Hermione started, well and true distracted now.

"I'll come, but I'm not meeting Ron, and I'm wearing my Invisibility Cloak." Harry insisted. Faykan just huffed when she turned to him, and Hermione knew she wasn't going to get any answers out of him about anything now.

"Oh all right then..." Hermione said, surrendering, "but I hate talking to you both in that cloak, I never know if I'm looking at you or not."

So the next day Harry and Faykan put on the Invisibility Cloak in the dormitory, and they set off invisible with Hermione for Hogsmeade.

"People keep looking at me now," said Hermione grumpily to Harry as they came out of Honeydukes Sweetshop later, eating large cream filled chocolates. "They think I'm talking to myself."

"Don't move your lips so much then." Faykan replied.

"Come on, please just take off your cloak for a bit, no one's going to bother you here." Hermione pleaded.

"Oh yeah?" said Harry. "Look behind you."

Rita Skeeter and her photographer friend had just emerged from the Three Broomsticks pub. Talking in low voices, they passed right by Hermione without looking at her. When they were gone, Harry said, "She's staying in the village. I bet she's coming to watch the first task."

"She's gone," said Hermione, looking where she thought Harry and Faykan were. "Why don't we go and have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, it's a bit cold, isn't it? You don't have to talk to Ron!" she added irritably, correctly interpreting their silence.

The Three Broomsticks was packed, mainly with Hogwarts students enjoying their free afternoon, but also with a variety of magical people enjoying the wizarding pub.

Hermione pointed out a table, and went to buy three butterbeers, finally joining Harry and Faykan moments later and slipping their drinks to them under the cloak.

"I look like such an idiot, sitting here on my own," she muttered. "Lucky I brought something to do."

And she pulled out a notebook in which she had been keeping a record of S.P.E.W. members. She had postpone any further recruiting and had been jotting down questions to ask house elves when she met some.

"You know, maybe I should try and get some of the villagers involved in S.P.E.W.," Hermione said thoughtfully, looking around the pub.

"Yeah, right," said Faykan. "Hermione, when are you going to give up on this spew stuff?"

"When house-elves have decent wages and working conditions!" she hissed back. "You know, I'm starting to think it's time for more direct action. I wonder how you get into the school kitchens."

"No idea, ask Fred and George," said Harry.

"Look, it's Hagrid!" said Hermione, noticing the large man enter the pub with Professor Moody. Hermione watched as Moody's magic eye swiveled toward them, then he tapped Hagrid in the small of the back (being unable to reach his shoulder), muttered something to him, and then the pair of them made their way back across the pub toward Hermione, Harry and Faykan's table.

"All right, Hermione?" said Hagrid loudly.

"Hello," said Hermione, smiling back.

Moody limped around the table and bent down; Hermione thought he was reading the S.P.E.W. notebook, until he muttered, "Nice cloak, boys."

"Can your eye, I mean, can you…?" came Harry's surprised voice softly

"Yeah, it can see through Invisibility Cloaks," Moody said quietly. "And it's come in useful at times, I can tell you."

Hagrid was beaming at where the two boys sat, Hermione guessed at least being unable to see them. He leaned down and whispered something so soft that Hermione couldn't hear, and then straightened up.

"Nice ter see yeh, Hermione," he said loudly, then winked, and departed. Moody followed him.

"Why does Hagrid want me to meet him at midnight?" Harry said, very surprised.

"Does he?" said Hermione, looking startled. "I wonder what he's up to. I don't know whether you should go, Harry..." She looked nervously around and hissed, "It might make you late for Sirius."

"It may, but I think we should chance it," said Faykan, "He might be trying to help us with the tournament."

Hermione figured that was a good reason to go, and reluctantly agreed.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You have been Warned!**

 _So, the calm before the storm of the first task, with a touch of Faykan/Severus interaction. Ron being canon git, but that's to be expected when Faykan's primary concern has been Draoc and Harry over him or Hermione, so they would naturally take longer to alter from their canonical selves. I think theres a great deal of confusion that many readers have regarding my methods, and the sheer amount of subtlety that I strive for. most fanfiction addresses change with all the softness of a hammer to eh head, and personally I find that rather subpar at the best of times. an Istari, if Faykan is that, wouldn't strike the narrative of the story like a thunderbolt and change everything in a whirl of magic and power. they are subtle beings who carefully nudge others to change themselves, as they are so mandated by the Valar. that was the entire reason that Saruman was cast from the order, as he tried to enforce his own will over others. To so grossly overlook this internal character concept is just poor writing, and therefore I am working within the constrains that I have given myself through the use of these characters. ~F_


	52. Y4-C8: Task of Fire

_Editing update, book 6 is just under a 3rd finished editing. Many thanks to those who've reviewed, excellent notions brought up and much appreciated praise. Please R &R, and as always enjoy! ~F_

 **Chapter Eight**

 **Task of Fire**

Harry paced the length of the common room, still mulling about what Hagrid had shown him. Dragons… The first task was to get past dragons. Eventually he grew frustrated with the very notion and threw himself into an armchair in front of the fire. The room was in semidarkness; the flames were the only source of light.

Faykan was reading in the chair opposite him, but lowered the book as the flame hissed at them. They both turned to look, and saw Sirius's head sitting in the fire. If Harry hadn't seen Mr. Diggory do exactly this back in the Weasleys' kitchen over the summer, it would have scared him out of his wits. Instead, his face breaking into the first smile he had worn for days, he scrambled out of his chair quickly followed by Faykan, crouched down by the hearth, and said, "Sirius… how're you doing?"

Sirius looked different from Harry's memory of him. When they had said goodbye, Sirius's face had been gaunt and sunken, surrounded by a quantity of long, black, matted hair. Now, the hair was short and clean, Sirius's face was fuller, and he looked younger; much more like the only photograph Harry had of him, which had been taken at the Potters' wedding.

"Never mind me, how are you?" said Sirius seriously.

"I'm…" For a second, Harry tried to say "fine," but he couldn't do it. Before he could stop himself, he was talking more than he'd talked in days, about how no one believed they hadn't entered the tournament on their own, how Rita Skeeter had lied about him in the Daily Prophet, how he couldn't walk down a corridor without being sneered at, and about Ron, Ron not believing him, Ron's jealousy... Faykan put his arm around Harry and softly rubbed his shoulders, urging him silently to let his emotions out.

"...and now Hagrid's just shown me what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius, and I'm a goner," he finished desperately.

Sirius looked at him, eyes full of concern, eyes that had not yet lost the look that Azkaban had given them, that deadened, haunted look he had let Harry talk himself into silence without interruption, but now he said, "Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute, and I haven't got long here... I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about."

"What?" said Harry, feeling his spirits slip a further few notches... Surely there could be nothing worse than dragons coming?

"Karkaroff," said Sirius. "Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"

"Yes… he, what?" Harry replied quickly.

Sirius' explination was grim, "He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year, to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place." Faykan looked skeptical, but said nothing.

"Karkaroff got released?" Harry said slowly, his brain seemed to be struggling to absorb yet another piece of shocking information. "Why did they release him?"

"He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic," said Sirius bitterly. "He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names... he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place... He's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."

"Okay," said Harry slowly. "But... are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the goblet? Because if he did, he's a really good actor, he seemed furious about it. He wanted to stop either of us from competing."

"We know he's a good actor," said Sirius, "because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set him free, didn't he? Now, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet, Harry..."

"…you and the rest of the world," said Faykan bitterly.

Sirius ignored him and pressed on, "…and reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month, Moody was attacked the night before he started at Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was another false alarm," Sirius said hastily, seeing Harry about to speak, "but I don't think so, somehow. I think someone tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. And no one's going to look into it too closely; Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had."

"So... what are you saying?" said Harry slowly. "Karkaroff's trying to kill me? But… why?"

Sirius hesitated.

"I've been hearing some very strange things," he said slowly. "The Death Eaters seem to be a bit more active than usual lately. They showed themselves at the Quidditch World Cup, didn't they? Someone set off the Dark Mark... and then, did you hear about that Ministry of Magic witch who's gone missing?"

"Bertha Jorkins?" said Harry.

"Exactly... she disappeared in Albania, and that's definitely where Voldemort was rumored to be last... and she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up, wouldn't she?"

"Yeah, but... it's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?" said Harry.

"I wouldn't be surprised…" Faykan commented.

"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins," said Sirius grimly. "She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot; very nosy, and no brains… none at all. It's not a good combination, Harry. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap."

"So... so Voldemort could have found out about the tournament?" said Harry. "Is that what you mean? You think Karkaroff might be here on his orders?"

"I don't know," said Sirius slowly, "I just don't know... Karkaroff doesn't strike me as the type who'd go back to Voldemort unless he knew Voldemort was powerful enough to protect him. But whoever put your names in that goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it look like an accident."

"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing," said Harry grinning bleakly. "They'll just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff."

"Right… these dragons," said Sirius, speaking very quickly now. "There's a way, Harry. Don't be tempted to try a Stunning Spell, dragons are strong and too powerfully magical to be knocked out by a single Stunner, you need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon…"

"Yeah, I know, I just saw," said Harry.

"But you can do it alone," said Sirius. "There is away, and a simple spell's all you need. Just…"

But Faykan held up a hand to silence him. Harry's heart suddenly started pounding as though it would burst. He could hear footsteps coming down the spiral staircase behind him.

"Go!" they hissed at Sirius. "Go! There's someone coming!"

Harry scrambled to his feet, hiding the fire; if someone saw Sirius's face within the walls of Hogwarts, they would raise an almighty uproar, the Ministry would get dragged in, and they would be questioned about Sirius's whereabouts. Harry heard a tiny 'pop' in the fire behind him and knew Sirius had gone. He watched the bottom of the spiral staircase. Who had decided to go for a stroll at one o'clock in the morning, and stopped Sirius from telling him how to get past a dragon? Faykan stood just as whomever it was turn the last corner of the spiral stairs to the boy's dormitories.

It was Ron. Dressed in his maroon paisley pajamas, Ron stopped dead facing Harry and Faykan across the room, and looked around.

"Who were you talking to?" he said.

"What's that got to do with you?" Harry snarled. "What are you doing down here at this time of night?"

"I just wondered where you…" Ron broke off, shrugging, "Nothing. I'm going back to bed."

"Good, you do that, and leave us alone." Faykan said, returning to his seat while glaring at Ron.

"Sorry about that," said Ron, his face reddening with anger, "Should've realized you didn't want to be disturbed. I'll let you get on with practicing for your next interviews in peace."

The book Faykan had been read suddenly went flying across the room, smacking into Ron's face with a heavy thump. Ron staggered back, clutching his blackened eye. "Piss off Ronald!" Faykan said loudly.

Ron glared back with his good eye, and then stomped up the stars in a huff. Faykan summoned the book back and sat heavily, turning back to Harry. "Well, since we were so rudely interrupted with Sirius, we'll just need to plan your strategy to get past your dragon ourselves."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco glanced across the Great Hall at Harry, Hermione and Faykan, who were sitting at the Gryffindor table with Ginny Weasley. It looked like Harry wasn't eating again, even with Faykan constantly pushing plates of food towards him. Draco's eyes unfortunately, kept trailing towards Ginny, the familiar rising feeling returned, and Draco felt himself blushing slightly. Before any of the other Slytherin's noticed, Draco returned his attention to his food.

The next time he could muster the courage to discreetly look, Harry was dragging Hermione and Faykan out of the hall by the arm. Draco finished off his last bites and followed, hoping that Harry might just be eager for more training.

He caught up to then as they crossed the third floor. Harry filled him in on the first task, and Draco understood his agitation. Faykan and Hermione kept giving Harry suggestions as to how to fight his dragon. "Whatever you do, you can't show off you new skills, if we want to catch whoever is trying to kill you, we don't want them thinking your as powerful as you are," Faykan was advising.

"What do you plan to do for the task, Fay?" Draco asked.

"Haven't thought about me yet," Faykan replied, shrugging, "I'm more concerned with Harry right now; whomever entered me knows that I'm powerful, therefore I don't have too many limits on what I can or can't do."

A familiar clunk caused them all to turn. Mad-Eye Moody was emerging from a nearby classroom.

"Come with me, Potter," he growled, "The rest of you, off you go."

Harry stared apprehensively at Moody. Draco wondered if he had overheard them. Moody beckoned him over, and Harry slowly followed him back down towards the Defense classroom.

"What do you reckon Moody wants with Harry?" Draco asked absently as the pair turned out of sight.

"No, idea, but I don't trust him." Faykan replied. "C'mon, let's get up to the room."

Moody didn't keep Harry for long. He came bursting into the room only an hour later, "I need to learn the summoning charm by Tuesday afternoon."

Faykan raised his eyebrows curiously, "What's your plan Harry?" he asked, grinning slightly. Harry explained that Moody had wanted to give Harry some tips on facing the dragons; his plan was to summon his Firebolt and out fly the dragon on it.

Faykan pondered for several seconds, then declared, "It's perfect Harry, a fourth year spell, and a skill everyone already knows you possess, I can't believe we didn't think of it before. Let's start now."

Between Draco, Hermione and Faykan, Harry was able to master the spell relatively quickly, but insisted on practicing until he could do the spell both silently and wandlessly, even though he would verbalize the spell during the task and use his wand.

"Well, now we know what to do next time I can't manage a spell," Harry said, throwing a rune dictionary back to Hermione, so he could try again, "threaten me with a dragon. Right..." He raised his hand and closed his fingers slightly, like he was making a fist.

The heavy book soared out of Hermione's hand, flew across the room, and Harry caught it.

"Harry, I really think you've got it!" said Hermione delightedly.

"Just as long as it works during the task," Harry said. "The Firebolt's going to be much farther away than the stuff in here, it's going to be in the castle, and I'm going to be out there on the grounds..."

"That doesn't matter," said Faykan firmly." Just as long as you're concentrating really hard on it, it'll come."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus had received Undol's note to meet the night before the first task, and he made sure he was prepared for another emotional breakdown with several Calming Daunts, just in case. Thankfully, the boy appeared to be in much brighter spirits, almost swaggering through the door with his stupid overconfident grin plastered on his face. "Hello Professor." He greeted cheerfully. Severus just nodded, setting aside the current round of essays he was attempting to grade. They boy sat down, and just stared at Severus for several moments, smiling like he hadn't a care in the world.

"Well, Mr. Undol… you requested to meet me tonight, do you expect me to start the conversation as well?" Severus asked finally, becoming annoyed. Undol's smile faded as he returned to the world around him, "Oh… yes, sorry Professor." The boys face contorted, as if he was thinking how best to phrase what he wanted to say.

"Why are you and Dumbledore having me watched?" he asked finally. Severus didn't even blink, having expected this question to eventually come up. "I mean," Undol clarified, "why are Moody and those three Ravenclaws watching me all the time. I'm not stupid Sir; I see the way they look at me..."

"I do not presume to know all the reasoning's of Headmaster Dumbledore; however, I personally asked the Ravenclaws to watch you on the off chance that you or, more importantly, Mr. Potter got into anymore dangerous situations. You need not concern yourself with those three." Severus said. It was a half-truth, but then, if it made Undol less agitated, all the better.

"Then why did Moody pull Harry aside two days ago and basically form his plan for the first task for him?" this actually managed to surprise Severus. He was under the impression that Albus was all for 'fairness and good sportsmanship' like any golden Gryffindor.

"That I do not know Undol; I would suspect that Professor Moody had his own reasons for helping Potter." Severus said honestly.

"I don't trust Moody," Undol said abruptly.

Severus grinned to himself, "I'm sure he'd be pleased that you're taking his lessons to heart then."

Faykan laughed halfheartedly, and then sobered, "I'm sure you know that Sirius communicates with me and Harry, right?"

Severus was aware; thanks to Albus' near draconic monitoring of the floo connections in Hogwarts, those damnably silvery instruments of his were set to so many things it was a wonder that there were quiet moments in his office at all.

"I am," Severus said, slightly irritated. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear about Black, but he had agreed to talk with Undol, and Slytherins kept their word, better even than Gryffindors.

"Well, he fire called a few days ago, to talk to Harry… and, he warned us about the signs that have been cropping up, the upsurge of Death Eaters, the Dark Mark at the World Cup, Bertha Jorkins' disappearance, all pointing to something big about to happen."

Severus nodded, silently agreeing, but kept his opinions to himself. Undol waited for a few moments, clearly hoping that Severus would tell him things he didn't need to know. Finally he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"Well, um… I uh… I should probably get to bed, first task tomorrow… Need to be ready to face those dragons…" and Undol got up and left.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

"Potter, Undol, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now... You have to get ready for your first task."

"Okay," said Harry, standing up, his fork falling onto his plate with a clatter. He felt restless, yet ready at the same time.

"Good luck," Hermione whispered. "You'll be fine!"

Both Harry and Faykan nodded their thanks to her before leaving the Great Hall after Professor McGonagall. She didn't seem herself either, Harry noticed; in fact, she looked nearly as anxious as Hermione. As she walked him down the stone steps and out into the cold November afternoon, she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Now, don't panic," she said, "just keep a cool head... We've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand... The main thing is just to do your best, and nobody will think any the worse of you... Are you all right?"

"Yes," Harry heard himself say. "Yes, I'm fine."

She was leading him toward the place where the dragons were, around the edge of the forest, but when they approached the clump of trees behind which the enclosure would be clearly visible, Harry saw that a tent had been erected, its entrance facing them, screening the dragons from view.

"You're to go in here with the other champions," said Professor McGonagall in a rather shaky sort of voice, "and wait for your turns. Mr. Bagman is in there. He'll be telling you both the… the procedure... Good luck."

"Thank you Professor," Faykan said, and she left them both at the entrance of the tent.

Fleur Delacour was sitting in a corner on a low wooden stool. She didn't look nearly as composed as usual, but rather pale and clammy. Viktor Krum looked even surlier than usual, which Harry supposed was his way of showing nerves.

"Harry! Good-o!" said Bagman happily, looking around at him and Faykan as they entered. "Come in, come in, make yourselves at home!"

Bagman looked somehow like a slightly overblown cartoon figure, standing amid all the pale faced champions. He was wearing his old Wasp robes again.

"Well, now we're all here, time to fill you in!" said Bagman brightly. "When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag," he held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it at them, "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different… err, varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too... ah; yes... your task is to collect the golden egg!"

Harry glanced around. Faykan looked bored at the information, as if he had knew beforehand, then began to spin his wand in his fingers absently. Fleur Delacour and Krum hadn't reacted at all. Perhaps they thought they might be sick if they opened their mouth; that was certainly how Harry felt. But they, at least, had volunteered for this…

And in no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing, joking... Harry felt as separate from the crowd as though they were a different species. And then, it seemed like about a second later to Harry, Bagman was opening the neck of the purple silk sack.

"Ladies first," he said, offering it to Fleur Delacour.

She put a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon, a Welsh Green. It had the number two around its neck And Harry knew, by the fact that Fleur showed no sign of surprise, but rather a determined resignation, that he had been right: Madame Maxime had told her what was coming.

The same held true for Krum. He pulled out the Swedish Short-Snout. It had a number one around its neck. He didn't even blink, just sat back down and stared at the ground.

Faykan put his hand into the bag, and out came the Hungarian Horntail, the number four tied around its neck. Knowing what was left; Harry put his hand into the silk bag and pulled out the Chinese Fireball, and the number three.

"Well, there you are!" said Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Krum, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now... Harry... could I have a quick word? Outside?"

"Err... yes," said Harry blankly, and he got up and went out of the tent with Bagman, who walked him a short distance away, into the trees, and then turned to him with a fatherly expression on his face.

"Feeling all right, Harry? Anything I can get you?"

"What?" said Harry, "I… no, nothing."

"Got a plan?" said Bagman, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "Because I don't mind sharing a few pointers, if you'd like them, you know. I mean," Bagman continued, lowering his voice still further, "you're the underdog here, Harry... Anything I can do to help..."

"No," said Harry so quickly he knew he had sounded rude, "no… I-I know what I'm going to do, thanks."

"Nobody would know, Harry," said Bagman, winking at him.

"No, I'm fine," said Harry, wondering why he kept telling people this, and wondering whether he had ever been less fine. "I've got a plan worked out, I…"

A whistle had blown somewhere.

"Good lord, I've got to run!" said Bagman in alarm, and he hurried off.

Harry walked back to the tent and saw Krum emerging from it. Harry tried to wish him luck as he walked past, but all that came out of his mouth was a sort of hoarse grunt.

Harry went back inside to Fleur and Faykan. Seconds later, they heard the roar of the crowd, which meant Krum had entered the enclosure and was now face-to-face with the living counterpart of his model.

"Very daring!" Bagman was yelling, and Harry heard the Swedish Short-Snout emit a horrible, roaring shriek, while the crowd drew its collective breath. "That's some nerve he's showing, and, yes, he's got the egg!"

Applause shattered the wintery air like breaking glass; Krum had finished.

"One down, three to go!" Bagman yelled as the whistle blew again. "Miss Delacour, if you please!"

Fleur was trembling from head to foot; Harry felt more warmly toward her than he had done so far as she heft the tent with her head held high and her hand clutching her wand. He and Faykan were alone.

The same process started again... "Oh I'm not sure that was wise!" they could hear Bagman shouting gleefully. "Oh... nearly! Careful now... good lord, I thought she'd had it then!"

Ten minutes later, Harry heard the crowd erupt into applause once more... Fleur must have been successful too. A pause, while Fleur's marks were being shown... more clapping... then, for the third time, the whistle.

"And here comes Mr. Potter!" cried Bagman as the whistle blew, and Harry nervously made his way to the tent's entrance.

Faykan caught Harry's arm just before he left, "You'll be fine Harry, just remember how we practiced…" he reassured, giving Harry a gentle shove toward the entrance.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione watched as Harry flew around the Chinese Fireball, taunting it into pulling away from the eggs, then diving beneath it like an arrow, seizing the egg and pulling up and away. Hermione had screamed when the Fireball had hit Harry with its tail, but it appeared to have done minimal damage.

"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!"

Harry landed and Hermione saw Hagrid, Professor McGonagall and Professor Moody rush over to check on him. She watched as the judges gave their scores. Madam Maxime gave Harry an eight, Mr. Crouch a nine, same as Dumbledore. Mr. Bagman awarded Harry full marks, and Karkaroff gave him a measly four.

Hermione wanted to run and check on Harry in the medical tent, but Faykan was next.

"And now our final champion!" Bagman announced as the whistle blew for the last time. Faykan appeared at the edge of the enclosure, facing down the Horntail and its eggs.

Hermione held her breath as Faykan slowly advanced, wand raised and pointing at the dragon. The Horntail waited until Faykan was just too close, then roared and spit a gust of fire at the wizard. Faykan didn't try to evade the jet of flames, but instead slashed his wand in a high arc around his head, which caused the dragon-fire to curve, bending around Faykan's body and flying back at the Horntail.

The dragon roared in anger, but didn't seem to be harmed by its own fire. Its next attack was to swing it giant tail at Faykan, but Faykan dodged out of the way, still advancing on the Horntail. Finally Faykan broke out into a run at the dragon, unsheathing his sword, and it glowed with blue fire in the presence of the Horntail.

Bellowing loudly, it reared, plunging down, trying to crush Faykan beneath its weight, but Faykan leap beneath the dragon's slashing claws, avoided its head as it attempted to devour him, and stabbed upward, striking the soft underbelly of the great creature.

It howled in agony, moving around to get a view of the creature below it, careful to step around its eggs. Faykan struck again, slashing at a hind leg while sending blasting curses into the wings. Roaring again, the Horntail twisted, lashing at Faykan again with its tail, catching him in the torso and sending him flying towards the pile of eggs.

Faykan landed hard, feet away from the golden egg. But the Horntail blasted him with flames again, the air scorching as the fire blazed toward him.

" _Pinquelek en' i' orod._ " Faykan yelled, and streams of frost and snow blasted from his wand, battling the spout of fire from the Horntail. Steam erupted where ice met fire, but the dragon was slowly gaining ground, forcing Faykan back toward the golden egg. Suddenly, Faykan canceled his spell, at the same time deflecting the blast of flames away from him and the eggs, then raised his wand and free hand, " _khelek en' Caradhras_ ," he commanded. Pillars of ice erupted around the Horntail, trapping it between the huge shards. The beast roared again and thrashed against the ice, furious, but it could not shatter the crystals.

Faykan turned and picked up the golden egg, causing the crowd to go berserk. Hermione was impressed, Faykan had shown he was powerful before, but this was a new level above anything he had done previously.

Professor Snape guided Faykan into the medical tent while dragon handlers worked to stun the Horntail and collect the normal eggs. Hermione raced to the tent, Ron and Draco right behind her. Faykan was sitting on a stool next to Harry as Madam Pomfrey tended to a massive cut across his chest from the Horntail's spikes.

"Harry, Faykan, you were both brilliant!" Hermione said squeakily.

"You were amazing! You really were!" added Draco.

But both Faykan and Harry was looking at Ron, who was very white and staring at them as though they were ghosts.

Finally he said, very seriously, "Whoever put your names in that goblet, I… I reckon they're trying to do you in!"

"Caught on, have you?" said Faykan coldly, "Took you long enough."

Hermione stood nervously between them, looking from one to the other. Ron opened his mouth uncertainly.

"It's okay," Harry said, before Ron could get any words out. "Forget it."

"No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've…"

"Forget it, "Harry said.

Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back

Hermione burst into tears. Boys were so stupid sometimes.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus was not surprised by Faykan's performance. He had expected that a dragon wouldn't be enough to do the boy in, but he had hoped that he was wrong. The points had been rather favorable to the boy; he was in third place behind Harry and Mr. Krum, who were tied for first. But Albus was cunning, there were two tasks left to break the boy with, and if those failed, he had a backup plan to shatter the boy's mind and allow him to fall into the perfect place for Albus to manipulate Harry into the inevitable confrontation with Voldemort.

Alastor reported that Harry was working out the tasks with Faykan, Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy. That was good, Harry would need all the help he could get, but Albus couldn't be caught offering direct assistance to Harry, so he would rely on the power of their friendship to pull Harry through to the end of this ordeal.

Severus commented once that Undol had sought him out for a confidant, to talk to on occasion and relieve his stresses. Furthermore, their first 'session' had ended with an emotional breakdown from the boy, which pleased Albus greatly. The sooner the boy was out of the way or under his thumb, the better Albus would sleep at night.

The stranger thing was the mystery of the disappearing Goblet of Fire. It was discovered after the wand weighing that the real goblet had gone, a perfect copy in its place, and the Ministry was scrambling to search for it, secretly of course.

Albus did not care personally, he had more important things to tend to, such as thinking up who would fit as the hostage for Mr. Undol in the next task. Ideally, Harry would have been the best choice, but as Harry was also a champion that was out of the question. Faykan was not that close to Mr. Weasley or Miss Granger, so that left Albus with one choice of candidate. Mr. Malfoy would have to join Mr. Weasley and Miss Delacour's younger sister in the lake. That only left Mr. Krum. Well, Albus figured that the Yule Ball would reveal a prime choice for the Bulgarian to seek in the watery depths.

 _pinquelek en' i' orod : frost of the mountain_

 _khelek en' Caradhras : ice of redhorn_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

Not much that needed to be added or swapped here, as it was primarily an action chapter, but the section mentioning the disappearance of the Goblet of Fire is key toward the future subplot that I'm brewing. 3 guesses who took it, first 2 don't count... again, thanks for the reviews, until next time! ~F


	53. Y4-C9: Girl Troubles

_Book Six is nearly finished in its editing and various additions, which is very good news. at the current rate, I believe I will be significantly close to finishing the entire editing process by the end of this 2 week cycle, and if that does indeed happen, we will move to a more frequent updating schedule to accomidate. Many thanks to those who've been reviewing this and the original story! ~F_

 **Chapter Nine**

 **Girl Troubles**

Harry, Ron, Draco, Faykan and Hermione went up to the Owlery that evening to find a bird to use so that Harry could send Sirius a letter telling him that he had managed to get past his dragon unscathed. On the way, Harry filled Ron and Draco in on everything Sirius had told him and Fay about Karkaroff. Though shocked at first to hear that Karkaroff had been a Death Eater, by the time they entered the Owlery Ron was saying that they ought to have suspected it all along.

"Fits, doesn't it?" he said. "Remember what Nott said on the train, about his dad being friends with Karkaroff? Now we know where they knew each other. They were probably running around in masks together at the World Cup... I'll tell you one thing, though, Harry, if it was Karkaroff who put your name in the goblet; he's going to be feeling really stupid now, isn't he? Didn't work, did it? Hardly even got scorched!"

Draco shook his head. Gryffindors were too quick to forgive sometimes, "However, that still leaves us the question of who put Faykan's name in," he reminded them, which quieted Ron as they all pondered the idea silently. Faykan leaned out the window and stretched out one arm. Several moments later a large black raven landed on it, clutching Faykan's robe sleeve in its feet.

"I am not sure who wanted me in the tournament. It could have been the same person who wanted Harry, or it could be someone else entirely." Faykan said vaguely as he offered to bird to Harry to tie hit letter to Sirius to. The raven took off immediately after the letter was secure, and together the five of them went back down the stairs. The Gryffindors turned off to head to their common room, while Draco continued downward to the dungeons.

He passed Theodore Nott on the second floor, as he chatted with two Durmstrang students, Crabbe and Goyle laughing stupidly at whatever they were saying. Draco stopped when he heard Faykan's name. He craned an ear to try and listen in. One of the Durmstrang boys were talking, "If you vere in Durmstrang, Theodore, you vould be expected to just take vhat you vanted, being a rich and influential pureblood. You shouldn't just vait for vhat you know von't happen…"

Nott held up a hand to stop the boy when he noticed Draco, "What do you want, Malfoy?" he sneered. Draco frowned, but continued back to the dungeons, ignoring Nott's comment about blood traitors, which caused all the boys to laugh.

Blaise Zabini was waiting for Draco in the common room. He nodded casually to Draco as he sat near the fireplace. After several minutes of silence where a pair of sixth years walked in and turned down to the dormitories, Blaise set his book aside and addressed Draco, "So, that was rather interesting what Undol did to get past the Horntail. Not many people would charge a dragon head on like that."

Draco nodded, it was true that it was a risky move for Faykan, which was one of the reasons he had been awarded less points that Harry or Krum, aside from his injury and him harming the Horntail.

"I think I'm beginning to see what my mother sees in him." Blaise continued, "His power is obvious, although he is being rather liberal with his uses of it…" Blaise looked thoughtful for a minute then asked, "Have you learned anything about him yet I wonder Draco?"

"No…" Draco said absently. The truth was that it was hard with everything that was happening to speak with Ron, Harry, and Hermione together without Faykan being present. And with Ron being a prat recently that further threw his plan out of control, "hopefully I can talk with the others without Faykan around soon…" he said to alleviate Blaise, who was looking smug at Draco's failure.

"I'd advise that you hurry that up, there might be something serious that he's trying to hide from you all or something… then again, he _could_ just be embarrassed about his past and not want to share it, but that's even less of a reason for you not to know something about him."

"Why do you care anyway Zabini?" Draco asked.

"Let's just say, I've got… personal reasons to want to know Undol better…" the Italian boy said cryptically.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry wasn't surprised when he, Faykan, Ron, and Hermione entered the Gryffindor common room it exploded with cheers and yells again. There were mountains of cakes and flagons of pumpkin juice and butterbeer on every surface; Lee Jordan had let off some Filibuster's Fireworks, so that the air was thick with stars and sparks; and Dean Thomas, who was very good at drawing, had put up some impressive new banners, depicting Harry zooming around the Fireball's head on his Firebolt, and others showing Faykan slashing at the Horntail with _Glamdring_.

Harry helped himself to food; he had almost forgotten what it was like to feel properly hungry, and sat down with Faykan, Ron and Hermione. He couldn't believe how happy he felt; he had Ron back on their side, they'd gotten through the first task, and wouldn't have to face the second one for three months.

"Blimey, this is heavy," said Lee Jordan, picking up one of the two golden eggs, which Harry and Faykan had left on a table, and weighing it in his hands. "Open it, both of you, go on! Let's just see what's inside it!"

"He's supposed to work out the clue on his own," Hermione said swiftly. "It's in the tournament rules..."

"Rules were made for those who entered themselves Hermione," Faykan muttered, so only Hermione could hear him, and she stopped talking immediately.

"Yeah, go on, open it!" several people echoed.

Lee passed Harry the egg, and he and Faykan worked together to pry it open.

It was hollow and completely empty, but the moment it was opened, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the room. The nearest thing to it Harry had ever heard was the ghost orchestra at Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party, who had all been playing the musical saw.

"Shut it!" Fred bellowed, clamping his hands over his ears.

"What was that?" said Seamus Finnigan, staring at the egg as Harry slammed it shut again. "Sounded like a banshee... Maybe you've got to get past one of those next!"

"It was someone being tortured!" said Neville, who had gone very white and spilled sausage rolls all over the floor. "You're going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"

"Don't be a prat, Neville, that's illegal," said George. "They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing... maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower."

"Want a jam tart, Hermione?" said Fred.

Hermione looked doubtfully at the plate he was offering her. Fred grinned. "It's all right," he said. "I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard creams you've got to watch…"

Neville, who had just bitten into a custard cream, choked and spat it out. Fred laughed.

"Just my little joke, Neville..."

Hermione took a jam tart. Then she said, "Did you get all this from the kitchens, Fred?"

"Yep," said Fred, grinning at her. He put on a high pitched squeak and imitated a house-elf. "'Anything we can get you, sir, anything at all!' They're dead helpful... get me a roast ox if I said I was peckish."

"How do you get in there?" Hermione said in an innocently casual sort of voice.

"Easy," said Fred, "concealed door behind a painting of a bowl of fruit. Just tickle the pear, and it giggles and…" He stopped and looked suspiciously at her. "Why?"

"Nothing," said Hermione quickly.

"Going to try and lead the house elves out on strike now, are you?" said George.

"Don't you go upsetting them and telling them they've got to take clothes and salaries!" said Fred warningly. "You'll put them off their cooking!"

Just then, Neville caused a slight diversion by turning into a large canary. "Oh! Sorry, Neville!" Fred shouted over all the laughter. "I forgot… it was the custard creams we hexed…"

Within a minute, however, Neville had molted, and once his feathers had fallen off, he reappeared looking entirely normal. He even joined in laughing.

"Canary Creams!" Fred shouted to the excitable crowd. "George and I invented them, seven Sickles each, a bargain!"

It was nearly one in the morning when Harry finally went up to the dormitory with Faykan, Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean. Before he pulled the curtains of his four-poster shut, Harry set his tiny model of the Chinese Fireball on the table between his and Faykan's bed, where it yawned, curled up, and closed its eyes.

Faykan watched, and then copied Harry, setting his miniature Hungarian Horntail next to Harry's. It curled up next to Harry model and went to sleep as well. Really, Harry thought, as he pulled the hangings on his four-poster closed, Hagrid had a point... they were all right, really, dragons...

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

"I'm not sure whether they hibernate or not," Hagrid told the shivering class in the windy pumpkin patch next are of Magical Creatures lesson. "Thought we'd jus' try an see if they fancied a kip... we'll jus' settle 'em down in these boxes..."

There were now only ten skrewts left; apparently their desire to kill one another had not been exercised out of them. Each of them was now approaching six feet in length. Their thick gray armor; their powerful, scuttling legs; their fire-blasting ends; their stings and their suckers, combined to make the skrewts the most repulsive things Hermione had ever seen. The class looked dispiritedly at the enormous boxes Hagrid had brought out, all lined with pillows and fluffy blankets.

"We'll jus' lead 'em in here," Hagrid said, "an' put the lids on, and we'll see what happens."

But the skrewts, it transpired, did not hibernate, and did not appreciate being forced into pillow-lined boxes and nailed in. Hagrid was soon yelling, "Don' panic, now, don' panic!" while the skrewts rampaged around the pumpkin patch, now strewn with the smoldering wreckage of the boxes. Most of the class, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle in the lead, had fled into Hagrid's cabin through the back door and barricaded themselves in; Harry, Faykan, Ron, Draco and Hermione, however, were among those who remained outside trying to help Hagrid. Together they managed to restrain and tie up nine of the skrewts, though at the cost of numerous burns and cuts; finally, only one skrewt was left.

"Don' frighten him, now!" Hagrid shouted as Ron and Draco used their wands to shoot jets of fiery sparks at the skrewt, which was advancing menacingly on them, its sting arched, quivering, over its back. "Jus' try an slip the rope 'round his sting, so he won hurt any o' the others!"

"Yeah, we wouldn't want that!" Ron shouted angrily as he and Draco backed into the wall of Hagrid's cabin, still holding the skrewt off with their sparks.

"Well, well, well... this does look like fun."

Rita Skeeter was leaning on Hagrid's garden fence, looking in at the mayhem. Hermione recognized her from the description Faykan and Harry gave after the disastrous first article she printed She was wearing a thick magenta cloak with a furry purple collar today, and her crocodile-skin handbag was over her arm.

Hagrid launched himself forward on top of the skrewt that was cornering Draco and Ron and flattened it; a blast of fire shot out of its end, withering the pumpkin plants nearby.

"Who're you?" Hagrid asked Rita Skeeter as he slipped a loop of rope around the skrewt's sting and tightened it.

"Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter," Rita replied, beaming at him. Her gold teeth glinted.

"Thought Dumbledore said you weren' allowed inside the school anymore," said Hagrid, frowning slightly as he got off the slightly squashed skrewt and started tugging it over to its fellows.

Rita acted as though she hadn't heard what Hagrid had said.

"What are these fascinating creatures called?" she asked, beaming still more widely.

"Blast-Ended Skrewts," grunted Hagrid.

"Really?" said Rita, apparently full of lively interest. "I've never heard of them before... where do they come from?"

A dull red flush rose up out of Hagrid's wild black beard. Where had Hagrid got the skrewts from? Hermione, thinking fast, said, "They're very interesting, aren't they? Aren't they, _Harry_?"

"What? Oh yeah... ouch... interesting," said Harry as she stepped on his foot.

"Ah, you're here. Harry!" said Rita Skeeter as she looked around, completely distracted from her previous question. "So you like Care of Magical Creatures, do you? One of your favorite lessons?"

"Yes," said Harry stoutly. Hagrid beamed at him.

"Lovely," said Rita. "Really lovely. Been teaching long?" she added to Hagrid. Hermione noticed her eyes travel over Dean (who had a nasty cut across one cheek). Lavender (whose robes were badly singed), Seamus (who was nursing several burnt fingers), and then to the cabin windows, where most of the class stood, their noses pressed against the glass waiting to see if the coast was clear.

"This is o'ny me second year," said Hagrid.

"Lovely... I don't suppose you'd like to give an interview, would you? Share some of your experience of magical creatures? The Prophet does a zoological column every Wednesday, as I'm sure you know. We could feature these, err… Bang-Ended Scoots."

"Blast-Ended Skrewts," Hagrid said eagerly. "Err… yeah, why not?"

Harry had a very bad feeling about this, but there was no way of communicating it to Hagrid without Rita Skeeter seeing, so he had to stand and watch in silence as Hagrid and Rita Skeeter made arrangements to meet in the Three Broomsticks for a good long interview later that week. Then the bell rang up at the castle, signaling the end of the lesson.

"Well, goodbye, Harry!" Rita Skeeter called merrily after them as he set off with Ron, Faykan, Draco and Hermione, "Until Friday night, then, Hagrid!"

"She'll twist everything he says," Harry said under his breath.

"Just as long as he didn't import those skrewts illegally or anything," said Hermione desperately. They looked at one another, it was exactly the sort of thing Hagrid might do.

"Hagrid's been in loads of trouble before, and Dumbledore's never sacked him," said Ron consolingly. "Worst that can happen is Hagrid'll have to get rid of the skrewts. Sorry... did I say worst? I meant best."

Harry and Hermione laughed, and, feeling slightly more cheerful, went off to lunch. Hermione decided that today would be perfect to go to the kitchens and talk to the Hogwarts house elves, and she convinced Ron to accompany her. Faykan and Harry declined, saying they didn't want to see what chaos would be unleashed when Hermione mentioned payment and benefits to them.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

During Thursday's transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall revealed a horrifying announcement. Harry had been listening to Ron's hundredth recounting of his and Hermione's trip to the kitchens, which as Faykan had predicted, didn't go over well.

The house elves had not to politely informed Hermione that they wouldn't trade their jobs at Hogwarts for anything, stating that 'house elves is not supposed to have fun,' and 'what are house elves needing with paying or time off?' Ron was just telling Harry about how they had found Mr. Crouch's dismissed house elf in the kitchens when Professor McGonagall called out irritably. "Potter! Weasley! Will you pay attention!"

They both jumped and looked up to face her. They hadn't been doing anything wrong. The lesson was almost over, the guinea fowl they had been changing into guinea pigs had been shut away in a large cage on Professor McGonagall's desk; they had copied down their homework from the blackboard; and the bell was due to ring at any moment.

"Now that Potter and Weasley have returned to the present," she said, with an angry look at the pair of them, "I have something to say to you all. The Yule Ball is approaching, a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above, although you may invite a younger student if you wish…"

Lavender Brown let out a shrill giggle. Parvati Patil nudged her hard in the ribs, her face working furiously as she too fought not to giggle. They both looked around at Faykan and Harry; Professor McGonagall ignored them, which Harry thought was distinctly unfair, as she had just told off him and Ron.

"Dress robes will be worn," Professor McGonagall continued, "and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then…"

Professor McGonagall stared deliberately around the class.

"The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to, err… let our hair down," she said, in a disapproving voice.

Lavender giggled harder than ever, with her hand pressed hard against her mouth to stifle the sound. Harry could see what was funny this time: Professor McGonagall, with her hair in a tight bun, looked as though she had never let her hair down in any sense.

"But that does _not_ mean," Professor McGonagall went on, "that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way."

The bell rang, and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders.

Professor McGonagall called above the noise, "Potter, Undol, a word, if you please."

Professor McGonagall waited until the rest of the class had gone, and then said, "Now boys, the champions and their partners…"

"What partners?" said Harry.

Professor McGonagall looked suspiciously at him, as though she thought he was trying to be funny.

"Your partners for the Yule Ball, Potter," she said coldly, "your dance partners."

Harry's insides seemed to curl up and shrivel.

"Dance partners?" He felt himself going red.

"Yes, dance partners," said Professor McGonagall firmly. "Traditionally, the champions and their partners open the ball. So make sure you get yourselves partners, boys."

A week ago, Harry would have said finding a partner for a dance would be a cinch compared to taking on the first task. But now that he had done the latter, and was facing the prospect of asking a girl to the ball, he thought he'd rather have another round with the dragon.

This year, however, everyone in the fourth year and above seemed to be staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays, and they all seemed to Harry to be obsessed with the coming ball, or at least all the girls were, and it was amazing how many girls Hogwarts suddenly seemed to hold; he had never quite noticed that before. Girls giggling and whispering in the corridors, girls shrieking with laughter as boys passed them, girls excitedly comparing notes on what they were going to wear on Christmas night...

Harry found himself and Faykan suddenly in the middle of a warzone as dozens upon dozens of girls fought over who got to ask to be taken to the ball by the two Hogwarts champions. Both he and Faykan were being cornered wherever they went by giggling hordes of girls, asking personal questions or begging to go to the ball. Even their mealtimes were being disrupted, as roughly twenty or so owls would deliver notes and letters from desperate girls.

Hermione's words about Krum kept coming back to him. "They only like him because he's famous!" Harry doubted very much if any of the girls who had asked to be his partner so far would have wanted to go to the ball with him if he hadn't been a school champion. Then he wondered if this would bother him if Cho asked him.

The last week of term became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Some of the teachers, like little Professor Flitwick, gave up trying to teach them much when their minds were so clearly elsewhere; he allowed them to play games in his lesson on Wednesday, and spent most of it talking to Harry about the perfect Summoning Charm Harry had used during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.

Other teachers were not so generous. Nothing would ever deflect Professor Binns, for example, from plowing on through his notes on goblin rebellions, as Binns hadn't let his own death stand in the way of continuing to teach, they supposed a small thing like Christmas wasn't going to put him off. It was amazing how he could make even bloody and vicious goblin riots sound as boring as Percy's cauldron bottom report.

Professors McGonagall and Moody kept them working until the very last second of their classes too, and Snape, of course, would no sooner let them play games in class than adopt Harry. Staring nastily around at them all, he informed them that he would be testing them on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term.

Ron complained loudly about Snape the same night, and about how he ruined the last of the term for them by making them study.

"Mmm... you're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" said Hermione, looking at him over the top of her Potions notes. Ron was busy building a card castle out of his Exploding Snap pack.

"It's Christmas, Hermione," said Harry lazily; he was rereading ' _Flying with the Cannons_ ' for the tenth time in an armchair near the fire.

Hermione looked severely over at him too. "I'd have thought you'd be doing something constructive, Harry, even if you don't want to learn your antidotes!"

"Like what?" Harry said as he watched Joey Jenkins of the Cannons belt a Bludger toward a Ballycastle Bats Chaser.

"That egg!" Hermione hissed.

"We've planned to work on the egg after the ball fiasco has ended Hermione," Faykan said, not even looking away from the wizard chess he was playing versus the black pieces. His game was interrupted however, by a large school barn owl swooping in an open window and landing on the chessboard, scattering the pieces.

Faykan blinked at the owl, and then gently took the letter from the leg. He read the letter quickly, and spluttered, knocking his own pieces around the board. "Um… who's Terry Boot?" he asked.

"Terry Boot? Isn't he that fourth year Ravenclaw boy?" Hermione said.

Ron looked up, wide eyed and accidentally knocked his card castle down, causing the whole lot to explode. "Are you being asked to the ball by blokes now Fay?" he said horrified. Faykan flushed crimson and denied the accusation vehemently, folding the letter away carrying the owl back to the window.

"Oi, Faykan, hold that owl!" Fred shouted from across the room. He and George came hurrying over with a letter.

"Who d'you two keep writing to, eh?" said Ron.

"Nose out, Ron, or I'll burn that off for you too," said Fred, waving his wand threateningly. "So... you lot got dates for the ball yet?"

"Nope," said Ron.

"Well, you'd better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone," said Fred.

"Who're you going with, then?" said Ron.

"Angelina," said Fred promptly, without a trace of embarrassment.

"What?" said Ron, taken aback. "You've already asked her?"

"Good point," said Fred. He turned his head and called across the common room, "Oi! Angelina!"

Angelina, who had been chatting with Alicia Spinnet near the fire, looked over at him.

"What?" she called back.

"Want to come to the ball with me?"

Angelina gave Fred an appraising sort of look.

"All right, then," she said, and she turned back to Alicia and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face.

"There you go," said Fred to Harry, Faykan and Ron, "piece of cake."

They left, only to be replaced by Ginny moments later, "Oh, Faykan," she said casually as she approached, "can I talk to you privately for a minute." Faykan glanced at his chess board, the pieces smashed and strewn about haphazardly, and shrugged. He followed Ginny out of the common room.

Ron looked over at Harry after they left, "We should get a move on, you know... ask someone. Fred's right. We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."

Hermione let out a sputter of indignation.

"A pair of... what, excuse me?"

"Well… you know," said Ron, shrugging. "I'd rather go alone than with, with Eloise Midgen, say."

"Her acne's loads better lately, and she's really nice!"

"Her nose is off center," said Ron.

"Oh I see," Hermione said, bristling. "So basically, you're going to take the best looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"

"Err… yeah, that sounds about right," said Ron.

"I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped, and she swept off toward the girls' staircase without another word.

Ron watched her storm off, and then shrugged at Harry, before turning back and attempting to rebuild his card castle.

"Wonder what Ginny wanted with Faykan," Harry asked.

Ron laughed, "Probably wanted to ask him to the ball. Much better choice than Terry Boot I think."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco shifted uncomfortably as he waited in the Room of Requirement for Faykan to return. He had asked his friend after the Yule Ball was announced if he would ask, on Draco's behalf, for Ginny Weasley to come to the ball with him. Draco would have done so himself, as the proper pureblood he was, if not for that large attack of nerves that cropped up whenever he approached the girl.

Draco had worried about how Faykan would react to his plea of the heart, but the Gryffindor had simply put an arm around Draco and said that certainly he would help, but in return, Draco had to carry him around in his animagus form until the ball was over so he could avoid the mobs of girls seeking invitations from the Hogwarts champions. Draco agreed immediately.

After a half hour, Draco was starting to grow anxious, had she said no? Did she already pick someone else? He couldn't take standing around and waiting. Crossing over to the door to the seventh floor, Draco stopped when he heard voices directly outside it. Listening in, he heard that it was Faykan and… Ginny! Draco held his breath, silently praying to Merlin that she would say yes.

"Faykan, I wanted to ask you something." Ginny was saying.

"Yes, what it is?" Faykan responded.

"I was wondering if… if you would…" Draco's eyes widened. Was she going to ask Faykan instead? Blood raging in his ears, Draco prepared to fling the door open and spring at Faykan, when Ginny finished her sentence.

"…would you ask Draco if he'd go to the ball with me?"

Draco almost yelled in triumphant joy. Ginny wanted to ask him to the ball! He listened as Faykan happily explained that Draco would defiantly go to the ball with her, and heard her delighted squeal.

"Oh Faykan, this makes me so happy, is there anything I can do for you for this?" she asked.

"Well, actually, if you could find me someone to go with who wouldn't be completely crazy about me being a champion that would be fantastic…" Faykan muttered sheepishly.

Ginny giggled, "I suppose that's been rather a nuisance for you and Harry hasn't it.' she said solemnly, "I think I know someone who you can go with, I'll just ask her, but I'm sure she'd be delighted to get to go…"

Draco heard her skip away, and stepped back as the door opened and Faykan entered to deliver the good news.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry and Ron had pledged to find dates by the end of Friday, but every time he glimpsed Cho that day: during break, and then lunchtime, and once on the way to History of Magic, she was surrounded by friends. Didn't she ever go anywhere alone? Could he perhaps ambush her as she was going into a bathroom? But no, she even seemed to go there with an escort of four or five girls. Yet if he didn't do it soon, she was bound to have been asked by somebody else.

He found it hard to concentrate on Snape's Potions test, and consequently forgot to add the key ingredient - a bezoar - meaning that he received bottom marks. He didn't care, though; he was too busy screwing up his courage for what he was about to do. When the bell rang, he grabbed his bag, and hurried to the dungeon door.

"I'll meet you at dinner," he said to Ron, Faykan and Hermione, and he dashed off upstairs. He'd just have to ask Cho for a private word, that was all... He hurried off through the packed corridors looking for her, and (rather sooner than he had expected) he found her, emerging from a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.

"Err, Cho? Could I have a word with you?"

Giggling should be made illegal. Harry thought furiously, as all the girls around Cho started doing it. She didn't, though. She said, "Okay," and followed him out of earshot other classmates.

Harry turned to look at her and his stomach gave a weird lurch as though he had missed a step going downstairs.

"Err," he said.

He couldn't ask her. He couldn't. But he had to. Cho stood there looking puzzled, watching him. The words came out before Harry had quite got his tongue around them.

"Wangoballwime?"

"Sorry?" said Cho.

"D'you… d'you want to go to the ball with me?" said Harry. Why did he have to go red now? Why?

"Oh!" s aid Cho, and she went red too. "Oh Harry, I'm really sorry," and she truly looked it. "I've already said I'll go with someone else."

"Oh," said Harry.

It was odd; a moment before his insides had been writhing like snakes, but suddenly he didn't seem to have any insides at all.

"Oh okay," he said, "no problem."

"I'm really sorry," she said again.

"That's okay," said Harry.

They stood there looking at each other, and then Cho said, "Well…"

"Yeah," said Harry.

"Well, 'bye," said Cho, still very red. She walked away.

Harry called after her, before he could stop himself.

"Who're you going with?"

"Oh… Cedric," she said. "Cedric Diggory."

"Oh right," said Harry.

His insides had come back again. It felt as though they had been filled with lead in their absence.

Completely forgetting about dinner, he walked slowly back up to Gryffindor Tower, Cho's voice echoing in his ears with every step he took. "Cedric… Cedric Diggory." He had rather liked Cedric after meeting him before the World Cup. Now he suddenly realized that Cedric was in fact a useless pretty boy who didn't have enough brains to fill an eggcup.

"Fairy lights," he said dully to the Fat Lady, the password had been changed the previous day.

"Yes, indeed, dear!" she trilled, straightening her new tinsel hair band as she swung forward to admit him.

Entering the common room, Harry looked around, and to his surprise he saw Ron sitting ashen-faced in a distant corner. Ginny was sitting with him, talking to him in what seemed to be a low, soothing voice.

"What's up, Ron?" said Harry, joining them.

Ron looked up at Harry, a sort of blind horror in his face.

"Why did I do it?" he said wildly. "I don't know what made me do it!

"What?" said Harry.

"He - err - just asked Fleur Delacour to go to the ball with him," said Ginny. She looked as though she was fighting back a smile, but she kept patting Ron's arm sympathetically.

"You what?' said Harry.

"I don't know what made me do it!" Ron gasped again. "What was I playing at? There were people… all around… I've gone mad… everyone watching! I was just walking past her in the entrance hall, she was standing there talking to Roger Davis, and it sort of came over me… and I asked her!"

Ron moaned and put his face in his hands. He kept talking, though the words were barely distinguishable.

"She looked at me like I was a sea slug or something… didn't even answer. And then - I dunno - I just sort of came to my senses and ran for it."

"She's part Veela," said Harry. "You were right, her grandmother was one. It wasn't your fault, I bet you just walked past when she was turning on the old charm for Davis and got a blast of it."

Faykan and Hermione came in through the portrait hole, "Why weren't you two at dinner?" Hermione asked, coming over.

"Because, and you shouldn't laugh, because they've both just been turned down by girls they asked to the ball!" said Ginny.

Faykan burst out laughing.

"Thanks a bunch, Ginny," said Ron sourly.

"All the good-looking ones taken, Ron?" said Hermione loftily. "Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, is she? Well, I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere who'll have you."

But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her in a whole new light.

"Hermione, you're a girl…"

"Oh well spotted," she said acidly.

"Well… you can come with one of us!"

"No, I can't," snapped Hermione.

"Oh come on," he said impatiently, "we need partners, we're going to look really stupid if we haven't got any, everyone else has..."

"I can't come with you," said Hermione, now blushing, "because I'm already going with someone."

"No, you're not!" said Ron.

"Oh really?" Hermione retorted her eyes flashing dangerously. "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!"

Ron stared at her. Then he grinned again.

"Okay, okay, we know you're a girl," he said, "That do? Will you come now?"

"I've already told you!" Hermione said very angrily. "I'm going with someone else!"

And she stormed off toward the girls' dormitories again.

"She's lying," said Ron flatly, watching her go.

"She's not," said Ginny quietly.

"Who is it then?" said Ron sharply.

"I'm not telling you, it's her business," said Ginny.

"Right," said Ron, who looked extremely put out, "this is getting stupid. Ginny, you can go with Harry, and I'll just…"

"I can't," said Ginny, and she grinned wickedly. "I'm going with someone also." And she turned out to go down to dinner, pausing to talk to Faykan, "Oh yeah, Faykan, my friend said yes, she'll see you in the entrance hall on Christmas Eve." And she left.

"What are we gonna do Harry?" Ron said miserably.

But Harry had just seen Parvati and Lavender come in through the portrait hole. The time had come for drastic action.

"Wait here," he said to Ron, and he stood up, walked straight up to Parvati, and said, "Parvati? Will you go to the ball with me?"

Parvati went into a fit of giggles. Harry waited for them to subside, his fingers crossed in the pocket of his robes.

"Yes, all right then," she said finally, blushing furiously.

"Thanks," said Harry, in relief. "Lavender… will you go with Ron?"

"She's going with Seamus," said Parvati, and the pair of them giggled harder than ever.

Harry sighed.

"Can't you think of anyone who'd go with Ron?" he said, lowering his voice so that Ron wouldn't hear.

"What about Hermione Granger?" said Parvati.

"She's going with someone else."

Parvati looked astonished.

"Ooh… who?" she said keenly.

Harry shrugged. "No idea," he said, "so what about Ron?"

"Well..." said Parvati slowly, "I suppose my sister might... Padma, you know... in Ravenclaw. I'll ask her if you like."

"Yeah, that would be great," said Harry. "Let me know, will you?"

And he went back over to Ron, feeling that this ball was a lot more trouble than it was worth, and hoping very much that Padma Patil's nose was dead center.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You have been Warned!**

 _As with many things in life, the infatuation of males to females interrupts the story, and a bit in the opposite direction. Naturally this would have prevents any significant changes to the tale at this point, and while yes it is a very standard scenario for the Yule Ball to take overwhelming importance, it cannot be helped. Or perhaps everyone is perfectly fine with it, and its just me, having returned from the high of massive edits in book 6, that see it as a problem that no changes of significance happened in this chapter... Who knows... but I suppose in the way of spoilers I will state that there will be no pairing character for Harry, as this tale is not a romantic one... in the modern sense of the word, there are many things romanticized in the story from other definitions of the word, but I digress. If somehow I nuke through the rest of book 6 and book 7 before next week Thursday (unlikely) I will post again, and start our weekly schedule; however, it is more likely that that will commence after the next normal update time in two weeks. until then everyone, you are much appreciated, and I hoped you enjoyed the story thus far. ~F_


	54. Y4-C10: The Yule Ball

_Good News Everyone! I managed to get through all of book 7's editing, and we can now start posting on a weekly basis rather than every other! Much thanks to those who reviewed, the moral support has been greatly appreciated, and I am quite pleased with the outcome of the new additions. without further preamble, please enjoy!_

 **Chapter Ten**

 **The Yule Ball**

Despite the very heavy load of homework that the fourth years had been given for the holidays, Hermione had it finished it record time. It helped that she, Harry, Ron, Faykan and Draco had chosen to spend all their free time in the Room of Requirement instead of their crowded common rooms.

Draco and Rom were currently practicing curses and hexes from a book that Hermione had found in the library. Harry was watching Faykan put the finishing touches on the Animal Spirit potion, he figured it would be ready right after the ball for them to use. Hermione was curious and excited to begin work on her animagus form, ever since seeing Professor McGonagall first transform, she had fallen in love with the idea of changing into an animal at will.

Hermione hadn't seen the Goblet of Fire again, and was slightly annoyed that her opportunity to call Fay out on the theft had passed, but she would be keeping a closer eye on the boy from now on.

Ron continued to pester Hermione about who her date for the ball was, but she felt it would be more fun to spring the surprise on him at the last minute. It meant keeping the others in the dark as well, but their reactions would be priceless when they found out that she was invited to the ball by their idol, Victor Krum.

Nott was still being an arse, especially to Faykan and Hermione, but she had new ways of dealing with the pompous git. A quick mention of Professor Moody or a rabbit joke would send Nott into a fuming fit, thus turning the tables on any attempt of bullying. This worked until Nott got angry enough to hex, and caused Hermione's already large front teeth to grow rapidly. But it was nothing that Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix, and Hermione actually let the nurse shrink her teeth to normal size, thus eliminating the one feature that Hermione truly hated about herself the most.

On Christmas Eve, as they made their way up to the tower from dinner, one of Faykan's ravens came soaring up the spiral staircase, Pigwidgeon following behind happily for no reason. The Raven landed on Faykan shoulder and offered its letter while Ron's tiny owl circled its owners head, twittering madly. People passing him were pointing and laughing and a group of third-year girls paused and said, "Oh look at the weeny owl! Isn't he cute?"

The girls instantly surrounded Ron and Pig, crooning and giggling at Ron and his owl. Hermione felt a wave of anger at how annoying the girls were being, but Ron finally scattered the girls, and together they continued on to Gryffindor Tower.

Everyone in the common room was much too busy in letting off more holiday steam to observe what anyone else was up to. Ron, Harry, Faykan and Hermione sat apart from everyone else by a dark window that was gradually filling up with snow, and Harry read the letter out loud:

 _Dear Harry,_

 _Congratulations on getting past the dragons. Whoever put your names in that goblet shouldn't be feeling too happy right now! I was going to suggest a Conjunctivitus Curse, as a dragon's eyes are its weakest point…'_

"That's what Krum did!" Hermione whispered.

'… _but your way was better, I'm impressed. Don't get complacent, though. Harry. You've only done one task; whoever put you in for the tournament's got plenty more opportunity if they're trying to hurt you. Keep your eyes open particularly when the person we discussed is around and concentrate on keeping yourself out of trouble. Keep in touch; I still want to hear about anything unusual._

 _Sirius_

"He sounds exactly like Moody," said Harry quietly, tucking the letter away again inside his robes. "'Constant vigilance!' You'd think I walk around with my eyes shut, banging off the walls..."

'Well, if we took your glasses away then… maybe…" Faykan said, sniggering slightly.

"But he's right, Harry," said Hermione, "you have still got two tasks to do. You really ought to have a look at that egg, both of you, and start working out what it means..."

"Hermione, they've got ages!" snapped Ron. "Want a game of chess, Harry?"

"Yeah, okay," said Harry. Then, spotting the look on Hermione's face, he said, "Come on, how're we supposed to concentrate with all this noise going on? I won't even be able to hear the egg over this lot."

"Oh I suppose not," she sighed, and she sat down with Faykan to watch their chess match, which culminated in an exciting checkmate of Ron's, involving a couple of recklessly brave pawns and a very violent bishop.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry awoke very suddenly on Christmas Day to the sound of tapping on the window. Rolling over slightly he pulled on his glasses and looked out between his curtains. A white bird was pecking at the window, but it defiantly wasn't an owl. The rest of the boys in the dormitory were stirring, so Harry slipped out of bed to pull the window open.

The bird, which was revealed to be a gull, fluttered in as the window opened, and watched Harry as he returned to his bed. The gull offered its webbed leg to Harry, a small package tied to it. Surprised, Harry took it, and the bird took off out the window immediately after.

"What was that Harry?" Seamus asked sleepily.

"Just a bird with a present… for me," Harry muttered confusedly. "Go back to sleep."

"Nah . . . presents!" said Seamus, spotting the large pile at the foot of his bed. Ron,

Dean, Faykan, and Neville decided that now they were awake they might as well get down to some present opening too. Harry turned back the tiny wrapped present the gull had brought. The paper was shining green and gold tied with a sea blue ribbon.

Setting it aside Harry decided to open his other presents first. Hermione had given Harry a book called 'Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland'; Ron, a bulging bag of Dungbombs; Sirius, a handy penknife with attachments to unlock any lock and undo any knot; and Hagrid, a vast box of sweets including all Harry's favorites: Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Fizzing Whizbees. There was also, of course, Mrs. Weasley's usual package, including a new sweater (crimson, with a picture of a dragon on it, Harry supposed Charlie had told her all about the Chinese Fireball), and a large quantity of homemade mince pies.

Ron was ecstatic with Harry's and Faykan's presents for him, a Chudley Cannon hat from Harry and a sleeve wand holster from Faykan. Faykan had received much the same things as Harry, aside from the odd little package. When Harry couldn't stand waiting any longer, he called Fay and Ron over to watch as he opened the present from the gull. Inside was a letter on old looking parchment, and a small box. Harry read the letter first, and gasped when he realized it was written in elvish.

' _To Mr. H Potter,_

 _By the grace of the Valar, I send you this aid. I have looked into your future and I've seen death. Behold Vilya, the ring of Air. May it assist you in your most dire needs, beloved child. Use it in wisdom, and love._

 _May the blessings of the Elves go with you,_

 _E_ '

Harry turned to the box and opened it. Faykan's eyes widened. Inside was a golden ring, set with a large sapphire. Harry could feel the magical emanating off of it as he removed the tiny ring from the box and slipped it on his finger. Harry had expected it to be cold, but the ring warmed his entire hand. It was an amazing feeling. Harry saw the look of wonder on his friends' faces, but he had no answers for them.

" _Vilya_ …" Faykan breathed, and Harry noticed the red ring on his best friend's finger for the first time in three years.

It was glowing warmly, and as Harry looked at it, a name sprung to his head, " _Narya_ …" he said softly watching the light glint off the red ruby set in the gold band of Faykan's ring.

"You've been given a kingly gift Harry," Faykan said solemnly, stood and went about putting his presents away.

Together the three Gryffindor boys met up with Hermione in the common room, and they went down to breakfast together. They spent most of the morning in Gryffindor Tower, where everyone was enjoying their presents, then returned to the Great Hall for a magnificent lunch, which included at least a hundred turkeys and Christmas puddings, and large piles of Cribbage's Wizarding Crackers. Harry was curious as to why no one seemed to notice his new ring other than Faykan now, but dismissed the idea for the moment, favoring the notion of enjoying Christmas with his friends.

They all went out onto the grounds in the afternoon, and Draco joined them; the snow was untouched except for the deep channels made by the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students on their way up to the castle. Hermione chose to watch Harry, Faykan, Draco and the Weasleys' snowball fight rather than join in, and at five o'clock said she was going back upstairs to get ready for the ball.

"What, you need three hours?" said Ron, looking at her incredulously and paying for his lapse in concentration when a large snowball, thrown by George, hit him hard on the side of the head. "Who're you going with?" he yelled after Hermione, but she just waved and disappeared up the stone steps into the castle.

There was no Christmas tea today; as the ball included a feast, so at seven o'clock, when it had become hard to aim properly, the others abandoned their snowball fight and trooped back to the common room. The Fat Lady was sitting in her frame with her friend Violet from downstairs, both of them extremely tipsy, empty boxes of chocolate liqueurs littering the bottom other picture.

"Lairy fights, that's the one!" she giggled when they gave the password, and she swung forward to let them inside.

Harry, Faykan, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville changed into their dress robes up in their dormitory, all of them looking very self-conscious about their various different robes. Faykan threatened to use a Sticking Hex on Ron's head if he refused to wear the golden crown from their first year as part of his attire. Flushing madly, Ron wore it, and suffered through Faykan's consistent references to the 'Weasel King.'

"I still can't work out how you two got the best looking girls in the year," muttered Dean as they made their way into the common room after they were all dressed.

"Animal magnetism," said Ron gloomily, adjusting the crown on his head for the fiftieth time.

The common room looked strange, full of people wearing different colors instead of the usual mass of black. Parvati was waiting for Harry at the foot of the stairs. She looked very pretty indeed, in robes of shocking pink, with her long dark plait braided with gold, and gold bracelets glimmering at her wrists. Harry was relieved to see that she wasn't giggling.

"You err… look nice," he said awkwardly.

"Thanks," she said. "Padma's going to meet you in the entrance hall," she added to Ron.

"Right," said Ron, looking around. "Where's Hermione?"

Parvati shrugged. "Shall we go down then, Harry?"

"Okay," said Harry, wishing he could just stay in the common room. Fred winked at Harry as he passed him on the way out of the portrait hole.

The entrance hall was packed with students too, all milling around waiting for eight o'clock, when the doors to the Great Hall would be thrown open. Those people who were meeting partners from different Houses were edging through the crowd trying to find one another. Parvati found her sister, Padma, and led her over to Harry and Ron.

"Hi," said Padma, who was looking just as pretty as Parvati in robes of bright turquoise. She eyed Ron up and down conspicuously, lingering on the bright crown for several seconds, and then smiled. Apparently Ron had passed some kind of test.

"Hi," said Ron, not looking at her, but staring around at the crowd. "Oh no ..."

He bent his knees slightly to hide behind Harry, because Fleur Delacour was passing, looking stunning in robes of silver-gray satin, and accompanied by the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, Roger Davies. When they had disappeared, Ron stood straight again and stared over the heads of the crowd.

"Where is Hermione?" he said again.

Ginny came over to them, leading a girl with waist length dirty blond hair, pale eyebrows and protuberant eyes, wearing a simple silvery dress with blue ribbons. The girl seemed very aloof, gazing around at the crowds of people with a glazed expression. "Faykan Undol," Ginny said, "may I introduce Luna Lovegood, Luna, this is Faykan."

"Pleased to meet you," Faykan said, taking her hand. Luna looked at him with a sort of quizzical expression, "Aren't you rather old to be at school still?" she asked. Everyone raised their eyebrows, and after several seconds, Faykan responded, "One can never be too old to learn."

Luna smiled. "Here," Faykan said, pulling out some Knuts from his pocket, then transfigured each into pieces of jewelry, a necklace of silver and blue stones, a pair of matching earrings and a small tiara with sapphires, "these are for you." He said offering them to Luna, who took them and put each on slowly, smiling as she did so.

A group of Slytherins came up the steps from their dungeon common room. Nott was in front; Pansy Parkinson in very frilly robes of pale pink on his arm. Crabbe and Goyle were both wearing green; they resembled moss-colored boulders, and neither of them, Harry was pleased to see, had managed to find a partner. Last came Draco, wearing dress robes of black velvet with a high collar, which in Harry's opinion made him look like a vicar, who came over to take Ginny's hand, which caused Ron to widen his eyes.

"You! You asked my sister!" he said loudly.

"Oh be quiet Ron," Ginny said, "I like Draco, and so why not have one of your best friends take me to the ball." Ron was huffing and very red when Draco and Ginny walked quickly away.

The oak front doors opened, and everyone turned to look as the Durmstrang students entered with Professor Karkaroff. Krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by a pretty girl in blue robes Harry didn't know. Over their heads he saw that an area of lawn right in front of the castle had been transformed into a sort of grotto full of fairy lights, meaning hundreds of actual living fairies were sitting in the rosebushes that had been conjured there, and fluttering over the statues of what seemed to be Father Christmas and his reindeer.

Then Professor McGonagall's voice called, "Champions over here, please!"

Parvati readjusted her bangles, beaming; she and Harry said, "See you in a minute" to Ron and Padma and walked forward with Faykan and Luna, the chattering crowd parting to let them through. Professor McGonagall, who was wearing dress robes of red tartan and had arranged a rather ugly wreath of thistles around the brim of her hat, told them to wait on one side of the doors while everyone else went inside; they were to enter the Great Hall in procession when the rest of the students had sat down.

Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies stationed themselves nearest the doors; Davies looked so stunned by his good fortune in having Fleur for a partner that he could hardly take his eyes off her. Harry pointedly looked anywhere else, and his eyes fell instead on the girl next to Krum. His jaw dropped.

It was Hermione.

But she didn't look like Hermione at all. She had done something with her hair; it was no longer bushy but sleek and shiny, and twisted up into an elegant knot at the back of her head. She was wearing robes made of a floaty, periwinkle-blue material, and she was holding herself differently, somehow, or maybe it was merely the absence of the twenty or so books she usually had slung over her back. She was also smiling… rather nervously, it was true… but the reduction in the size of her front teeth was more noticeable than ever; Harry couldn't understand how he hadn't spotted it before.

"Hi, Harry, Faykan!" she said. "Hi, Parvati!"

Parvati was gazing at Hermione in unflattering disbelief. She wasn't the only one either; when the doors to the Great Hall opened, Krum's fan club from the library stalked past, throwing Hermione looks of deepest loathing. Pansy Parkinson gaped at her as she walked by with Nott, and even he didn't seem to be able to find an insult to throw at her. Ron, however, walked right past Hermione without looking at her.

Once everyone else was settled in the Hall, Professor McGonagall told the champions and their partners to get in line in pairs and to follow her. They did so, and everyone in the Great Hall applauded as they entered and started walking up toward a large round table at the top of the Hall, where the judges were sitting.

The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.

Harry concentrated on not tripping over his feet. Parvati seemed to be enjoying herself; she was beaming around at everybody, steering Harry so forcefully that he felt as though he were a show dog she was putting through its paces. He caught sight of Ron and Padma as he neared the top table. Ron was watching Hermione pass with narrowed eyes. Padma was looking shocked.

Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but Karkaroff wore an expression remarkably like Ron's as he watched Krum and Hermione draw nearer. Ludo Bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars, was clapping as enthusiastically as any of the students; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely. But Mr. Crouch, Harry suddenly realized, was not there. The fifth seat at the table was occupied by Percy Weasley.

When the champions and their partners reached the table, Percy drew out the empty chair beside him, staring pointedly at Harry. Harry took the hint and sat down next to Percy, who was wearing brand new, navy blue dress robes and an expression of such smugness that Harry thought it ought to be fined.

"I've been promoted," Percy said before Harry could even ask, and from his tone, he might have been announcing his election as supreme ruler of the universe. "I'm now Mr. Crouch's personal assistant, and I'm here representing him."

"Why didn't he come?" Harry asked. He wasn't looking forward to being lectured on cauldron bottoms all through dinner.

"I'm afraid to say Mr. Crouch isn't well, not well at all. He hasn't been right since the World Cup, hardly surprising, overworked. He's not as young as he was, though still quite brilliant, of course, the mind remains as great as it ever was. But the World Cup was a fiasco for the whole Ministry, and then, Mr. Crouch suffered a huge personal shock with the misbehavior of that house-elf of his, Blinky, or whatever she was called. Naturally, he dismissed her immediately afterward, but… well, as I say, he's getting on, he needs looking after, and I think he's found a definite drop in his home comforts since she left. And then we had the tournament to arrange, and the aftermath of the Cup to deal with - that revolting Skeeter woman buzzing around - no, poor man, he's having a well earned, quiet Christmas. I'm just glad he knew he had someone he could rely upon to take his place."

Faykan asked whether Mr. Crouch had stopped calling Percy "Weatherby" yet, which caused the back of Percy's neck to turn pink.

There was no food as yet on the glittering golden plates, but small menus were lying in front of each of them. Harry picked his up uncertainly and looked around, there were no waiters. Dumbledore, however, looked carefully down at his own menu, and then said very clearly to his plate, "Pork chops!"

And pork chops appeared. Getting the idea, the rest of the table placed their orders with their plates too. Harry glanced up at Hermione to see how she felt about this new and more complicated method of dining, surely it meant plenty of extra work for the house elves? But for once, Hermione didn't seem to be thinking about S.P.E.W. She was deep in talk with Viktor Krum and hardly seemed to notice what she was eating.

It now occurred to Harry that he had never actually heard Krum speak before, but he was certainly talking now, and very enthusiastically at that.

"Veil, ve have a castle also, not as big as this, nor as comfortable, I am thinking," he was telling Hermione. "Ve have just four floors, and the fires are lit only for magical purposes. But ve have grounds larger even than these, though in vinter, ve have very little daylight, so ve are not enjoying them. But in summer ve are flying every day, over the lakes and the mountains…"

"Now, now, Viktor!" said Karkaroff with a laugh that didn't reach his cold eyes, "don't go giving away anything else, now, or your charming friend will know exactly where to find us!"

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Igor, all this secrecy... one would almost think you didn't want visitors."

"Well, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff, displaying his yellowing teeth to their fullest extent, "we are all protective of our private domains, are we not? Do we not jealously guard the halls of learning that have been entrusted to us? Are we not right to be proud that we alone know our school's secrets, and right to protect them?"

Dumbledore smiled as he recounted a tale of finding a new room just that morning on the seventh floor.

Harry snorted into his plate of goulash. Percy frowned, but Harry could have sworn Dumbledore had given him a very small wink. It was humorous to Harry because he knew that Dumbledore was referring to the Room of Requirement.

Meanwhile Fleur Delacour was criticizing the Hogwarts decorations to Roger Davies.

"Zis is nothing," she said dismissively, looking around at the sparkling walls of the Great Hall. "At ze Palace of Beauxbatons, we 'ave ice sculptures all around ze dining chamber at Chreestmas. Zey do not melt, of course . . . zey are like 'uge statues of diamond, glittering around ze place. And ze food is seemply superb. And we 'ave choirs of wood nymphs, 'oo serenade us as we eat."

Roger Davies was watching her talk with a very dazed look on his face, and he kept missing his mouth with his fork. Harry had the impression that Davies was too busy staring at Fleur to take in a word she was saying.

Luna was explaining some sort of creature to Faykan that lived in mistletoe and was called something that sounded like 'nargals'. Faykan was politely paying attention to her as she spoke, eating slowly and sneaking glances around the Hall.

Harry looked around the Hall. Hagrid was sitting at one of the other staff tables; he was back in his horrible hairy brown suit and gazing up at the top table. Harry saw him give a small wave, and looking around, saw Madame Maxime return it, her opals glittering in the candlelight.

Hermione was now teaching Krum to say her name properly; he kept calling her "Hermy-own."

"Her-my-oh-nee," she said slowly and clearly.

"Herm-own-ninny."

"Close enough," she said, catching Harry's eye and grinning.

When all the food had been consumed, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.

The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. They picked up their instruments, and Harry, who had been so interested in watching them that he had almost forgotten what was coming, suddenly realized that the lanterns on all the other tables had gone out, and that the other champions and their partners were standing up.

"Come on!" Parvati hissed. "We're supposed to dance!"

Harry tripped over his dress robes as he stood up. The Weird Sisters struck up a slow, mournful tune; Harry walked onto the brightly lit dance floor, carefully avoiding catching anyone's eye (he could see Seamus and Dean waving at him and sniggering), and next moment, Parvati had seized his hands, placed one around her waist, and was holding the other tightly in hers.

It wasn't as bad as it could have been, Harry thought, revolving slowly on the spot (Parvati was steering). It was rather similar to the Malfoy's Yule party he and Faykan attended last year. He kept his eyes fixed over the heads of the watching people, and very soon many of them too had come onto the dance floor, so that the champions were no longer the center of attention.

Draco and Ginny were dancing nearby, and Dumbledore was waltzing with Madame Maxime. He was so dwarfed by her that the top of his pointed hat barely tickled her chin; however, she moved very gracefully for a woman so large. Mad-Eye Moody was doing an extremely ungainly two-step with Professor Sinistra, who was nervously avoiding his wooden leg.

"He is so creepy!" Parvati whispered as Moody clunked past. "I don't think that eye should be allowed."

Harry heard the final, quavering note from the bagpipe with relief. The Weird Sisters stopped playing, applause filled the hall once more, and Harry let go of Parvati at once.

"Let's sit down, shall we?" he asked.

"Oh… but this is a really good one!" Parvati said as the Weird Sisters struck up a new song, which was much faster.

"No, I don't like it," Harry lied, and he led her away from the dance floor, past Fred and Angelina, who were dancing so exuberantly that people around them were backing away in fear of injury, and over to the table where Ron and Padma were sitting.

"How's it going?" Harry asked Ron, sitting down and opening a bottle of butterbeer.

Ron didn't answer. He was alternatively glaring at Hermione and Krum and Draco and Ginny, who were all dancing nearby. Padma was sitting with her arms and legs crossed, one foot jiggling in time to the music. Every now and then she threw a disgruntled look at Ron, who was completely ignoring her. Parvati sat down on Harry's other side, crossed her arms and legs too, and within minutes was asked to dance by a boy from Beauxbatons.

"You don't mind, do you, Harry?" Parvati said.

"What?" said Harry, who was now watching Cho and Cedric.

"Oh never mind," snapped Parvati, and she went off with the boy from Beauxbatons. When the song ended, she did not return.

Soon, Faykan and Luna appeared, sitting nearby, "Hey," Faykan said, sitting between Harry and Ron, as Luna was standing off to one side, weaving on the spot with the music. "How's it going?"

"Good," Harry replied, but again Ron didn't answer.

Hermione came over and sat down in Parvati's empty chair. She was a bit pink in the face from dancing.

"Hi," said Harry. Ron didn't say anything.

"It's hot, isn't it?" said Hermione, fanning herself with her hand. "Viktors just gone to get some drinks."

Ron gave her a withering look. "Viktor?" he said. "Hasn't he asked you to call him Vicky yet?"

Hermione looked at him in surprise. "What's up with you?" she said.

"If you don't know," said Ron scathingly, "I'm not going to tell you."

Hermione stared at him, and then at Harry, who shrugged.

"Ron, what…?"

"He's from Durmstrang!" spat Ron. "He's competing against Faykan and Harry! Against Hogwarts! You, you're…" Ron was obviously casting around for words strong enough to describe Hermione's crime, "fraternizing with the enemy, that's what you're doing!"

Hermione's mouth fell open.

"Don't be so stupid!" she said after a moment. "The enemy! Honestly… who was the one who was all excited when they saw him arrive? Who was the one who wanted his autograph? Who's got a model of him up in their dormitory?"

Ron chose to ignore this. "I s'pose he asked you to come with him while you were both in the library?"

"Yes, he did," said Hermione, the pink patches on her cheeks glowing more brightly. "So what?"

"What happened? Trying to get him to join spew, were you?"

"No, I wasn't! If you really want to know, he… he said he'd been coming up to the library every day to try and talk to me, but he hadn't been able to pluck up the courage!"

Hermione said this very quickly, and blushed so deeply that she was the same color as Parvati's robes.

"Yeah, well… that's his story," said Ron nastily.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Obvious, isn't it? He's Karkaroff's student, isn't he? He knows who you hang around with... He's just trying to get closer to Faykan or Harry, get inside information on them, or get near enough to jinx 'em…"

Hermione looked as though Ron had slapped her. When she spoke, her voice quivered.

"For your information, he hasn't asked me one single thing about Harry or Fay, not one…"

Ron changed tack at the speed of light.

"Then he's hoping you'll help him find out what his egg means! I suppose you've been putting your heads together during those cozy little library sessions…"

"I'd never help him work out that egg!" said Hermione, looking outraged. "Never. How could you say something like that…?"

People were starting to stare at them.

"Ron," said Harry quietly, "I haven't got a problem with Hermione coming with Krum…"

But Ron ignored Harry too.

"Why don't you go and find Vicky, he'll be wondering where you are," said Ron.

"Don't call him Vicky!"

Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd. Ron watched her go with a mixture of anger and satisfaction on his face.

"Are you going to ask me to dance at all?" Padma asked him.

"No," said Ron, still glaring after Hermione.

"Well, I'm going to go use the loo…" Faykan said, getting up and leaving rather abruptly.

"Fine," snapped Padma, and she got up and went to join Parvati and the Beauxbatons boy, who conjured up one of his friends to join them so fast that Harry could have sworn he had zoomed him there by a Summoning Charm.

"Vare is Herm-own-ninny?" said a voice.

Krum had just arrived at their table clutching two butterbeers.

"No idea," said Ron mulishly, looking up at him. "Lost her, have you?" Krum was looking surly again.

"Veil, if you see her, tell her I haff drinks," he said, and he slouched off.

"Made friends with Viktor Krum, have you, Ron?"

Percy had bustled over, rubbing his hands together and looking extremely pompous. "Excellent! That's the whole point, you know, international magical cooperation!"

To Harry's displeasure, Percy now took Padma's vacated seat. The top table was now empty; Professor Dumbledore was dancing with Professor Sprout, Ludo Bagman with Professor McGonagall; Madame Maxime and Hagrid were cutting a wide path around the dance floor as they waltzed through the students, and Karkaroff was nowhere to be seen. When the next song ended, everybody applauded once more, and Harry saw Ludo Bagman kiss Professor McGonagall's hand and make his way back through the crowds, at which point Fred and George accosted him.

Thankfully, Bagman came over to their table, and started to chat with Percy, allowing Harry and Ron to escape. Pretending they wanted more drinks. Harry and Ron left the table, edged around the dance floor, and slipped out into the entrance hall.

The front doors stood open, and the fluttering fairy lights in the rose garden winked and twinkled as they went down the front steps, where they found themselves surrounded by bushes; winding, ornamental paths; and large stone statues. Harry could hear splashing water, which sounded like a fountain. Here and there, people were sitting on carved benches. He and Ron set off along one of the winding paths through the rosebushes, but they had gone only a short way when they heard an unpleasantly familiar voice.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

"Severus, you cannot pretend this isn't happening!" Karkaroff said, following the Potion Master around the small fairy lit garden area set up for the Yule ball. "It's been getting clearer and clearer for months. I am becoming seriously concerned, I can't deny it…"

Severus was growing annoyed with the cowardly Durmstrang Headmaster, for the last three months he had been following Severus around, begging his advice and worrying him with the man's concerns regarding the signs of the Dark Lord's return

"Then flee," Severus said curtly. "Flee… I will make your excuses. I, however, am remaining at Hogwarts."

Severus and Karkaroff came around the corner, Severus had his wand out and was blasting rosebushes apart, partly to uncover students and partly to relieve stress. Squeals issued from many of the bushes, and dark shapes emerged from them.

"Ten points from Ravenclaw, Fawcett!" Severus snarled as a girl ran past him. "And ten points from Hufflepuff too, Stebbins!" as a boy went rushing after her.

Then he saw Potter and Weasley, "And what are you two doing?" he said.

"We're walking," Weasley said defiantly. "Not against the law, is it?"

"Keep walking, then!" Severus snarled, and he brushed past them, Karkaroff hurried after him. "Igor, I need to return to chaperoning these students, you must cease this, run or stay. I really do not care." Severus said, and Karkaroff finally slumped away.

Severus sighed in relief, but it was short lived. As he entered the entrance hall, a Ravenclaw boy came sprinting down the marble staircase, caught sight of Severus, and ran flat out toward him. Severus recognized him as Anthony Goldstein, "Professor," he panted, wheezing slightly as he stopped in front of him, "Come quickly; our _project_ has been attacked."

Severus realized what he referred to immediately. Together they ran back the way they boy had come, up the stairs and down the first floor corridors, stopping outside the boy's loo. Michael Corner was standing in front of the door, but moved aside as Severus and Goldstein approached, "He's in there with Boot; he's been really messed up."

Severus pushed the door open, preparing for the worst.

Severus heard the sounds of a boy crying immediately as he entered. One of the mirrors were shattered, the sink beneath it had blood on one side of the porcelain bowl. Water was covering the floor. Severus turned and saw Boot kneeling next to someone, the boy who was making all the noise. He was lying in a small pool of water mixed with blood, covered in bruises and cuts, his dress robes ripped and barley hanging on his body. Boot was trying to calm him, but the boy cowered away every time Boot came near.

Severus pushed Boot aside as he approached, looking down at the wild blue eyes of Faykan Undol. The boy was shaking violently, trying to protect himself as Severus neared him. Severus looked around; there were conjured ropes, severed by magic, still attached to Undol's wrists and ankles, and the boy's wand was gone.

"How did this happen?" he asked Boot, who shrugged, "We were looking for him at the ball, we've modified the spell you taught us to track one person anywhere in the castle, and we followed his signature here when he didn't move for nearly a half hour, and we found him exactly like he is now.

Severus turned again to Undol's prone form, "wait outside," he told Boot, who obeyed immediately.

Severus removed his large black outer robe, and set it aside, pulling out several Calming Daunts and Pain Relief Potions. Undol whimpered in pain and struggling weakly as Severus took his head forcefully in one hand and poured the potions into him.

It took several agonizing minutes for Undol to return to minimal consciousness, "Mr. Undol, its Professor Snape. I'm going to escort you to the Hospital Wing, will you trust me?"

Undol gave the tiniest nod, still partially convulsing on the ground, and Severus levitated his large black cloak around the boy as an added layer against the chill of the castle, and then urged him to stand. The boy fell over with a cry of pain as he tried to stand, cringing and shivering. Severus sighed, and took the boy in his arms, lifting him up, resigned to carrying him to the Hospital Wing himself. He awarded the Ravenclaw boys thirty points each for rescuing another student, and sent them back to Ravenclaw tower with orders to tell no one of what happened.

Undol moaned slightly and wrapped his arms around Severus' neck to steady himself from the jostling gait of Severus' hurried strides. He burst into the Hospital Wing, and looked around, thankfully no students were in at the moment, and Madam Pomfrey bustled out, gasped and hurried to help Severus lower the battered boy onto the furthest bed from the doors. She conjured privacy screens while Severus worked on the minor cuts and buries, healing them quickly and effectively. He then ran several diagnostic spells over the boy, and was revolted at his findings.

The boy's body had been beaten badly and had several bones broken, but by far the worst damage had been done to his mind. The boy had a dark curse plaguing his every thought, and Severus had little to no idea what it was, let alone how to combat and counter it.

"Poppy, I'm going to need more calming daunts, bone mending potions, along with fresh cloths as well as dreamless sleep, and all the pain relief you can find me." The old matron looked horrified, but said nothing as she acquired the requested items.

Undol had calmed to the point that he was only silently crying and whimpered softly when Severus touched him. "Undol, I need you to drink this," Severus said, holding the clear goblet half-filled with Skele-gro that Poppy had brought him moments later. The taste must not have even registered with the boy, Severus thought, but that was probably to be expected with the curse in his mind.

After helping the boy into the hospital pajamas, Undol lay on his side, facing away from Severus in shame or fear, still moaning every so often in pain. Unfortunately, Severus now had to ask the one awful question. "Mr. Undol, I need to ask you what happened. Who did this to you?"

The boy looked at him, tears staining the front of his face, and shook his head hurriedly, looking away again. "Undol, you need to tell me." Severus said in a calmer tone. It was imperative that he find who did this. Such things were not tolerated at Hogwarts. Undol shivered in fear, but didn't look at Severus again.

"May I at least see what happened with legilimency?" Severus asked.

Undol spoke finally, in a low voice riddled with fear and wavering terribly, "You have some idea what had to have happened Sev… Please don't make me relive it."

Hearing the boy's voice sound so tiny and utterly broken nearly shattered Severus' composure. Undol had been always so strong, so confidant and assured of himself; it was unbearable to see him rendered so low and fearful. Severus took the boy in his arms, holding him close, but unable to voice any gentle reassurances.

"Please Faykan," he finally managed, his own voice shaking, "Please let me in."

Finally, Undol pulled away from Severus, looking him directly in the eye with those two dulled blue orbs, and nodded slightly. Severus squeezed the boy's shoulders, and then slipped into his mind.

The boy's mind was in shambles, as if someone had reached in to attempt to tear it out. If Severus had wanted, he could have attempted to pull the boy's past forward, finally learn the answer to all the riddles. But… he suddenly didn't care who the boy was anymore. Severus pitied Undol, pitied him for what had befallen him, for whatever had happened. He coaxed Undol to present the memory of his attack himself, refusing to take it by force.

The vision came into focus, swirling like the silvery mess of a pensieve. Severus landed in the same bathroom he found Undol in. The boy was washing his hands in the sink, when the door behind him opened. Either Undol didn't hear, or he was distracted, as he didn't react to the sounds of multiple footsteps behind him.

Severus turned, but the people who entered were blurred, their form shifted so that the identity of the people were indiscernible. Severus could only make out that it was indeed three other males, and were probable around Undol's age group. The attacker's voice called out, blurry and garbled so that Severus could not recognize it. " _Fancy meeting you here, Undol, all alone without your friends._ "

Undol turned, in the memory he must have recognized the other people because his wand was in his hand in an instant. Several rounds of spells were exchanged, but the center and smallest of Undol's attackers yelled " _Not this time!_ " as he charged, grabbing Undol's head and smashing it into the mirror behind them, shattering the glass, knocking Undol to his knees. The attacker didn't let up, lifting Undol and slamming him into the sink several times, until Undol's hold on his wand slackened, and the attacker knocked it away.

" _I've waited too long for this,_ " the other boy said as he conjured ropes to tie Undol's arms and legs, spreading him eagle against the farthest wall from the door. " _Lock the door, and watch for anyone approaching_." The main attacker commanded the others, who obeyed immediately. The smallest boy returned to considering Undol, " _Now, what to do with you. Perhaps…_ " and the attacker began to beat Undol, slamming fists and feet into Undol's soft tissues, only stopping when Undol was screaming in agony.

Then finally the attacker stepped back, and if Severus could make out the face he would assume the boy would be smiling, " _That's better… and now I will make you know why I'm better than you Undol._ " A wand appeared, jabbing at Undol as pain and torture curses replaced the physical beatings. Undol screamed, struggling violently, but the ropes held his tightly, so even if he knew wandless magic he could not use the hand motions to cast a spell.

" _A small break?_ " the torturer taunted Undol, releasing the curses and letting Undol breathe. The indefinite form leaned in towards Faykan's face, and Severus could feel the wicked smirk even if he could not make it out, " _The Dark Lord will rise again Faykan Undol, and your precious Potter will die at his hands. You have failed, and soon you will know how lost you truly are. In the mean time, a little gift my father taught me just for you. Sucumbere intro moeroris!_ " both vision Undol and Severus widened their eyes as the dark curse was spoken, a powerful curse that assaulted the mind of its victim, plaguing their memory with their worst fears, spun in new and cruel ways.

Severus turned away, not wanting to see the moment Undol's sanity was shattered, but knew the moment as Undol's screams started anew. Severus left the memory, unable to tolerate any more of it.

Undol blinked as Severus left his mind, fresh tears creeping down his face. The boy buried his head into Severus' chest, sobbing uncontrollably. "Please…" Severus heard the boy whisper, his voice was still so very tiny and broken, "Please… don't tell… anyone…"

Severus lowered the boy back onto the hospital bed, "I promise, I won't. But I want to visit you again soon, to help you get over this traumatic event." He said, softer and gentler than Severus remembered saying anything in his life. For some reason, the small nod that Undol gave in response meant the world to him.

 _Sucumbere intro moeroris : Suffer in despair (latin)_

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _Aaaand this scene... Yeah, there's a bit of a lot that happened, and was remade multiple times in the original edition... Let's just say that there was a very importantly dropped plotline that I am much happier with it being removed. Hermione's observations of Harry and Faykan at one time had some basis in fact, if you catch my drift, and I decided against it after a while, and had to clear out some consequences of that plot line... Although I left some of the part regarding Nott as it help differentiate him from the canon Draco that he had thus far been leaning towards. in the end I am more pleased with the result, as it give Nott more of a darker nature while still steering away too heavily from topics that were not even remotely needed for this story. Although ironically it seems that a similar theme keeps trying to recur in my stories, only for it to not actually happen...Veneficus and Blaise comes to mind, but for those who've read that story you already know how THAT ended up... heh... Anyway, yeah, weekly chapter updates now, so that's great for everyone! and after this 2 week bout of Stormreaver writing, I will finally officially start Project: Raven's Flight, and begin writing some original content... super excited and slightly terrified for that! Until next time! ~F_


	55. Y4-C11: Aftermaths

_And, as promised, we are a weekly Thursday update story now! *much rejoicing* Much thanks to those who reviewed the previous chapter, and please enjoy the next! ~F_

 **Chapter Eleven**

 **Aftermaths**

Draco knew something was wrong immediately when Harry, Ron and Hermione came in to breakfast on Boxing Day. They were looking around, worried and confused. Draco dashed over to find out what was wrong; ignoring the new glares and hisses of 'traitor' from the Slytherins who had seen him dancing with Ginny the night before.

"…Where could he be?" Hermione was asking Harry and Ron.

"What's wrong?" Draco said, noting the urgency in Harry and Ron's faces.

"Faykan's missing, ever since last night." Harry whispered, still glancing around.

"Well, we shouldn't panic just yet." Hermione said, "He could simply have gone somewhere like the Room of…"

She trailed off as Professor Snape approached them, looking graver than usual, "You four need to come with me," he said. They all gaped at him, the usual sneer on his face was gone, and his eyes had softened somewhat. They followed in worried silence as Snape led the up to the Hospital Wing. Before opening the door he turned to them, speaking in a soft and almost caring voice, "This will come as a shock, but Mr. Undol was assaulted yesterday during the ball."

Hermione gasped, Ron and Harry were shaking with rage. "I must ask you all to not tell anyone else what has happened to him; I worked hard all night to tell just you four. He's still in shock; don't talk to him about what happened, it's been a traumatic experience. He has a long way to go right now until he can return to the general populace of the school, and we still don't know who attacked him."

Professor Snape opened the door and led them into the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was bustling around the furthest bed, the occupant separated from the rest of the wing by privacy screens. "Potter, a private word if you please," Professor Snape said, leading Harry aside while Draco, Hermione and Ron went behind the screens, to see Faykan lying miserably on the bed while Madam Pomfrey ran her wand over his body.

"Hey there mate, feeling better?" Ron said, in an attempt to lighten the mood. Faykan grimaced as he saw them, and tried to turn away, but Madam Pomfrey held him flat as she put a vial of teal potion to his lips. Resignedly he drank it, shuddering at the taste. Hermione went over to put her hand on Faykan's arm to comfort him, but at her touch he moaned and jerked away. Madam Pomfrey watched them sadly for a few seconds then bustled away, and Draco distinctly heard her stifle a sob of her own. What could have happened to make Pomfrey distressed?

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry wondered what Professor Snape wanted with him. Wasn't it more important for him to be with Faykan right now? After they were sufficiently away from the privacy screens, Snape sat down so that he was eye level with Harry.

"Potter, I wouldn't tell you this unless it was vitally important. Your friend Undol was not just assaulted physically. The person who attacked him not only attacked his body but placed a dark curse on his mind." Harry's breath caught. Snape placed one hand on his shoulder to calm him, "Listen to me Potter, I need your help. Faykan needs your help. I can only do so much to reverse this curse; I'm asking you to be there for him. It's going to be rocky and he may have many emotion breakdowns, but you need to be his strength when he's at his weakest."

Harry nodded, "Of course Professor."

But Snape was not finished, "You need to understand, Undol is going to be terrified of people for a while, but you must work to get him adjusted to it around them again, this means touching him and helping him in readjusting to other normal interactions at every opportunity, just simple things like a hand on his shoulder or a brief embrace. He'll be less fearful of it if its you around him, because your closest to him."

Harry nodded.

Snape sighed, "Finally, I want you to try and get Faykan to tell you who did this to him. He's too fearful right now to voice it. After a while of comfort, he should be more willing."

"I'll try Professor." Harry replied.

"I know you will Potter, you a good friend to him." Professor Snape said, actually smiling at Harry. Harry edged away slightly, unsure what had come over the Potion Master, and went over to rejoin his friends at Faykan's bedside. Ron and Hermione were discussing the conversation that he and Ron had overheard between Hagrid and Madam Maxime. Faykan was listening, lying curled under the sheets of the hospital bed as Hermione talked. Hermione didn't seem to find the news that Hagrid was a half-giant nearly as shocking as Ron did.

"Well, I thought he must be," she said, shrugging. "I knew he couldn't be pure giant because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly… all this hysteria about giants. They can't all be horrible... It's the same sort of prejudice that people have toward werewolves... It's just bigotry, isn't it?"

Ron looked as though he would have liked to reply scathingly, but perhaps he didn't want a row in front of Faykan, because he contented himself with shaking his head disbelievingly while Hermione wasn't looking.

Suddenly the Hospital Wing doors opened loudly. Harry saw Faykan cringe and shrink under the covers further as Rita Skeeter's voice called around the room, "Now where is the _other_ Hogwarts champion, I heard a rumor that he was attacked during the Yule Ball, what a story that would make, _Triwizard Champion assaulted during international social event_. That would be a wonderful title. Now where is the darling boy?" She said without a trace of concern in her voice.

Harry could see her walking toward the privacy screens, the acid green quill in her mouth already, a crooked smile revealing her golden teeth. Luckily, Professor Snape quickly intervened. "The boy in question is not in any shape to speak with you Miss Skeeter; I dare say anyone is fully prepared to listen to your vindictive questioning. Besides, if you even cared what people had to say in your _fictions_ , you'd bother to be more accurate with your quotations."

"Furthermore…" Snape continued, forcing Skeeter back several steps from his menacing glare, "I remember explicitly that Professor Dumbledore banned you from the castle and the grounds, so I suggest you take your henchman and leave before I am forced to take drastic action to enforce the Headmaster's wishes." Harry saw Snape's hand twitch toward his wand. Apparently Skeeter did as well, because she muttered some kind of excuse and fled.

"Wow…" Ron said as Snape returned to his seat on the far side of the room, "That just massively increased my respect for Professor Snape…"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus was concerned. Severus had not been forthcoming on the details surrounding the attack on Faykan Undol. The Potions Master seemed to have developed a sense of confidentiality between himself and they boy. Albus understood, reading between the lines, but Severus had implied that he was not as of yet pressing this trust to their advantage. Perhaps, given this new development, Albus might not have to use his other plans, and could ensure the boy's safety throughout the rest of the tournament.

The other matter that had Albus worried was that his silvery instruments set to monitor Harry had suddenly just… stopped. No spinning, no smoke, nothing. It was as if Harry had ceased to exist. But that was impossible, Albus saw the boy every mealtime, and Alastor would have informed him if anything had changed about Harry, such that would have happened if he was under an illusion or was a polyjuiced spy. Hopefully the instrument was just being confused by the upswing of magic due to their guests, but Albus didn't believe it was the case. And he knew the source, Undol.

Albus stalked through the Hospital Wing doors sometime around midnight, long after Poppy and Severus had gone to sleep in their own quarters. Albus looked around, making sure there were no others in the ward, then cast a silence charm at Poppy's office door, and locked the main doors to the wing. The privacy screens around Undol's bed thoroughly blocked the view of anyone looking in, and would not need to be disturbed as Albus attempted to interrogate the boy.

As Albus stepped around the screens, Undol sat up. Clearly he had been lying awake for days, as there were dark circles under his eyes. Albus felt a tiny twinge of regret for what he was about to do, but for the greater good, he must ensure Harry stays under his control, and no others.

"Hello Faykan," Albus said, stepping closer.

The boy stared at him, anger boiling out of the crystal blue eyes, eyes much like Albus' own.

"Go away…" Undol muttered, edging away from Albus, until he was flush against the headboard of his bed.

"I'm sorry Undol, but this must be done…" Albus said, smiling sadly as he raised his wand, " _Legilimens!_ "

The boy was too weak right now to keep him out. Albus dived into the milky thoughts, grasping and straining to discover who the boy was and what he desired, and ever looking for how to destroy him, if needed. He was almost through the boy's remaining defenses, when a voice sounded from the depths of the boy's mind, deep and powerful and very unlike anything Albus had encountered, " _You cannot pass!_ " Then there was fire, thoughts of fire surrounded Albus heating and singeing at him, forcing Albus to retreat out of the mind.

He staggered slightly, but recovered, advancing on the boy and grabbing his face, his second mistake. The boy shrieked, screaming like a banshee, and a blast of wandless magic blew Albus across the room, knocking him into the beds across the ward. Albus could hear footsteps running toward the ward, and he quickly disillusioned himself and righted the furniture he had been blown into.

Severus came dashing through the fireplace, stopping by Undol, coaxing him to be calm, that he was there for him and other nonsense to relax the boy. Undol calmed, eventually, and Severus asked, "What was it, did someone come in here?"

"No," Undol said, looking directly at Albus, through the charm, "Just a nightmare…"

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus watched over Fay…Undol for the rest of the holiday, working with his Occlumency during the times he had no visitors, which was surprisingly rare. The entirety of Gryffindor house visited him over the next few days, having been told the bare minimum by Potter and his friends to keep them quiet. Even the three Ravenclaws who had found him showed up at one point, and brought with them they boy's wand, saying they had found it near the bathroom Undol was attacked in.

Poppy refused to let anyone actually see Undol, aside from Severus and the boy's closest friends; she was taking no chances that his attacker might return to harm him again. But Undol was doing much better, as much as could be expected at least. He still jumped when most people touched or came near him, but he was speaking again and his night terrors had stopped. He would be able to return to classes when term restarted, and Potter had already promised Severus not to let Undol out of his sight until he was back to normal.

Potter had also promised to bring Undol down to Severus' quarters twice during the week and every weekend so Severus could check on him, and to establish a safe place for Undol to be himself again.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me who attacked you?" Severus asked the boy again the day he was to return to Gryffindor Tower.

"Yes Severus," he replied. Undol had taken to calling him by his first name in private.

Severus allowed it, feeling that if it made the boy comfortable, he wouldn't stop him. "Alright them," he said, patting Undol's leg. The boy didn't flinch anymore when Severus or Potter touched him, showing resounding trust in them both.

Severus understood how the boy felt. The curse placed in his mind turned all thoughts of joy or happiness in on themselves, blending the world into the darkest images possible. It was like combining the presence of a dementor with the powers of a boggart, and forcing a victim to endure it nonstop. Severus was not worried that Fay…Undol would stay that way for long. The boy was simply too strong, and was overcoming the curse on his own in leaps and bounds.

Severus had worked on and seen the boy's mental defenses as they were reconstructed. It was no wonder neither he nor Albus had managed to effectively pull thoughts from him. The boy was a natural at mental magic, utilizing techniques and stratagems that Severus never had dreamed of. He had even copied several that were particularly impressive and incorporated them into his own Occlumency shields. Severus wondered how he had ever not appreciated the raw talent the boy had.

He had watched several times as the boy worked on the coursework he and his friends had put off for after the Yule Ball. Undol never seemed to refer to his books for assistance, even for difficult subjects like Potions or Transfiguration. Severus was forced to reevaluate everything he had ever seen or thought about Fay…Undol. What Severus' colleagues had said ever since the first years Undol had come to Hogwarts had been true, if not understatements.

Severus turned as the door to the Hospital Wing opened again, revealing Potter and Weasley. They had come to escort Undol back to Gryffindor Tower as part of his slow reintroduction back into the rest of the student body. As the three boys left, Poppy came over to Severus. "I certainly hope that Mr. Undol doesn't have too difficult of a time readjusting. That boy has spent more time in here than any other student in the past four years…" She said, glancing sadly at the now closed doors.

"I hope whoever did this doesn't try again," Severus replied solemnly

"I hope for their sake they don't, because you might demolish the entire castle in you search for them Severus." Poppy said, attempting to inject some cheerfulness into her voice, but failing.

The nurse of Hogwarts had lost much of her happiness during the first war, as she was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and adding that with the horrors she witnessed children do to each other, Severus was sure she had not been able to muster optimism for a long time. That didn't stop him from smiling malevolently at her comment. He would stop at nothing as it was to catch the person who harmed Faykan Undol, and if they tried a second time, Severus had no idea what his rage would unleash, Albus' wishes or not.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione watched Faykan as they made their way to classes the first day of the new term. The whole school had learned that he had been attacked, and many people were suspicious of the foreign champions, but no one attempted anything as Faykan seemed to be fine, as far as they knew. Ron had told her that Faykan had slept with Harry the previous night, and still flinched away when anyone else came close enough to touch him, but otherwise he was back to normal.

As they hadn't been able to use the Animal Spirit potion after the ball like they planned, Hermione had bottled the potion for Faykan and stored it in the Room of Requirement for them to use when Faykan was up to continue their training sessions.

Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Ron said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire. When they arrived at Hagrid's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door.

"Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago," she barked at them as they struggled toward her through the snow.

"Who're you?" said Ron, staring at her. "Where's Hagrid?"

"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."

"Where's Hagrid?" Harry repeated loudly.

"He is indisposed," said Professor Grubbly-Plank shortly.

Soft and unpleasant laughter reached their ears. Hermione saw Faykan shudder and step closer to Harry as Theodore Nott and the rest of the Slytherins joined the class. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank.

"This way, please," said Professor Grubbly-Plank, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering. Harry, Faykan, Ron, and Hermione followed her, looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains were closed.

"What's wrong with Hagrid?" Harry said again, as they hurried to catch up with Professor Grubbly-Plank.

"Never you mind," she said as though she thought they was being nosy.

"I do mind, though," said Harry hotly. "What's up with him?"

Professor Grubbly-Plank acted as though she couldn't hear him. She led them past the paddock where the huge Beauxbatons horses were standing, huddled against the cold and toward a tree on the edge of the forest, where a large and beautiful unicorn was tethered.

Many of the girls 'Oohed!' at the sight of the unicorn.

"Oh it's so beautiful!" whispered Lavender Brown. "How did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch!"

The unicorn was so brightly white it made the snow all around look gray. It was pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves and throwing back its horned head. That is, until it caught sight of Faykan, who was still hovering close to Harry. The unicorn then started to move towards the boy, stopping only when its tether went taught. Faykan's eyes were locked with it, and he took a hesitant step toward it

"Boys keep back!" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, throwing out an arm and catching Faykan hard in the chest, not noticing the unicorn's odd behavior. "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it..."

Hermione proceeded forward with the Professor and other girls, leaving the boys standing near the paddock fence, watching. Professor Grubbly-Plank was listing off the magical properties of unicorns, many of which Hermione even didn't know. But Hermione was watching the unicorn's face, as it was still looking toward Faykan. Suddenly Hermione was struck with an idea. Casually she moved to pat the unicorn's neck where the tether was tied, and slowly, unnoticed by the other girls swarming the creature, she worked at the knot.

As Professor Grubbly-Plank called over to make sure the boys were paying attention, Hermione got the knot loose. The tether fell was and the unicorn immediately began moving over toward Faykan. The girls all cried out as the unicorn trotted away, and all the boys instinctively backed away, leaving Faykan standing alone near the fence as the unicorn approached him.

Everyone, including Professor Grubbly-Plank watched, fascinated as the unicorn walked directly up to Faykan, tears slowly emerging from its shining blue eyes. Faykan was crying as well, and he leaned forward to embrace the unicorn's neck. Silvery white light radiated from the unicorn's horn, expanding until it encompassed both the creature and Faykan, outlining them both in a shining glow. As the glow faded, the unicorn backed away from Faykan, tossing its head slightly. It whinnied once, turned, and galloped back into the forest.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry was distracted from what Nott had been saying by the unicorn interacting with Faykan, but the memory quickly returned as they passed Hagrid's hut on their way back to the castle for lunch. Professor Grubbly-Plank had dismissed the class early when the unicorn left, seeing as the only subject of her lesson had gone.

Harry, Draco, Ron and Hermione all asked Faykan what the unicorn had done to him, but Faykan's only response was that 'it freed me, and reminded me of the light beyond all darkness.'

"That was a really good lesson," Hermione was saying as they entered the Great Hall. "I didn't know half the things Professor Grubbly-Plank told us about uni…"

"Look at this!" Harry snarled, and he shoved the Daily Prophet article Nott had been gloating about just before the lesson's interruption under Hermione's nose.

Hermione's mouth fell open as she read it. "How did that horrible Skeeter woman find out?"

"No idea," Harry replied angrily.

"Maybe she heard him telling Madame Maxime at the ball," said Hermione quietly.

"We'd have seen her in the garden!" said Ron. "Anyway, she's not supposed to come into school anymore, both Professor Snape and Hagrid said Dumbledore banned her..."

"Maybe she's got an Invisibility Cloak," said Harry, ladling chicken casserole onto his plate and splashing it everywhere in his anger. "Sort of thing she'd do, isn't it, hide in bushes listening to people."

Hermione pointed out that that had been exactly what Harry and Ron had done.

"We weren't trying to hear him!" said Ron indignantly. "We didn't have any choice! The stupid prat, talking about his giantess mother where anyone could have heard him!"

"We've got to go and see him," said Harry. "This evening, after Divination... Tell him we want him back... you do want him back?" he shot at Hermione.

"I… well, I'm not going to pretend it didn't make a nice change, having a proper Care of Magical Creatures lesson for once, but I do want Hagrid back, of course I do!" Hermione added hastily, quailing under Harry's furious stare.

So that evening after dinner, the five of them left the castle once more and went down through the frozen grounds to Hagrid's cabin. They banged and shouted for nearly fifteen minutes, but Hagrid refused to answer.

"What's he avoiding us for?" Ron said when they had finally given up and were walking back to the school. "He surely doesn't think we'd care about him being half-giant?"

But it seemed that Hagrid did care. They didn't see a sign of him all week. He didn't appear at the staff table at mealtimes, they didn't see him going about his gamekeeper duties on the grounds, and Professor Grubbly-Plank continued to take the Care of Magical Creatures classes. Nott was gloating at every possible opportunity.

"Missing your half-breed pal?" he kept whispering to Harry whenever there was a teacher around, so that he was safe from Harry's retaliation. "Missing the elephant-man?" Harry noticed that Faykan shuddered somewhat whenever Nott came near, and Harry suspicions grew when Nott smirked at his best friend almost knowingly. Harry decided that Professor Snape would want to know his evidence, and he might help with their problem with Hagrid.

"I'm sorry Potter, but I'm afraid I alone cannot help you persuade Hagrid into returning to work," Snape said during one of his check-up visits on Faykan. "Mainly due to the fact that Hagrid, however much he trusts me via the Headmaster, isn't close enough to value my opinion." Harry sighed, out of ideas to get Hagrid back.

"However, your information concerning Nott is very interesting. Unfortunately without an actual statement or accusation from Undol, it will be useless." Snape shot a glance at Faykan, who was inspecting the Professor's large collection of rare potion ingredients, naming them all in a low voice as he went shelf by shelf.

"Potter," the professor said softly, "you need to get him to confirm it, find somewhere he'll relax fully, he trusts you more than me, and do whatever it takes to get him to tell you the identity of his attacker. I'll see what I can do about Hagrid. Perhaps take Undol to the prefect's bathroom, it's warm and comfortable there; you could tell him that you want to work out the egg clue _under_ the hot water. The password is 'pine fresh'…"

Harry could hardly believe his ears that Professor Snape, of all people, was cheating to help them progress in the Tournament.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

There was a Hogsmeade visit halfway through January. Hermione was surprised that Harry and Faykan were going to go. Draco would have cared as well, but he was distracted currently, by several things. One was Blaise and the boy's constant questions about Faykan, many which Draco had no answers for.

During the Christmas holiday he had spoken to Harry, Ron, and Hermione about how odd it was for Faykan to have so many secrets, but they seemed to not be concerned with it as much as Faykan's condition. Draco attributed it to Gryffindor blind trust and moral concern for the injured, but regardless it made his efforts to learn more of their friend's past nearly impossible…

But the more pressing matter to Draco were the pair of letters that came to him after term resumed, one from each of his parents. The first to arrive was from Lucius, saying in no uncertain terms that he was disappointed and angry that Draco was spending too much time with Mudbloods and blood-traitors.

He continued to say that Draco was forbidden to associate with the enemies of the Dark Lord, and that as the heir of the Malfoy line, he had better start acting like the proud pureblood he was born to be. Draco could read between the lines for what they were. _You have embarrassed me in front of the other Death Eaters, and you will cease to be such a disappointing child, its time to grow up and prepare to take the Dark Mark._

Draco had no doubts as to who had finally ratted out his friendship with the Gryffindors: Nott and Parkinson. The pompous Slytherins' fathers would do nothing to usurp Lucius' position as the leader of the group of Death Eaters who were still out of Azkaban.

The second letter had come a day later, from his mother. Draco had expected a 'do as your father tells you' type message, so he was surprised when he opened it:

 _My Dearest Draco,_

 _I have heard what you father has commanded you to do for the sake of his reputation. I am not going to admonish you for being friends with you cousin Harry Potter or his friends, muggle born, blood-traitors or otherwise. You are quickly becoming a man my dearest dragon. And as such you need to make your_ _own_ _choices. Do not allow the loyalties of your father pervert the way you think. Be friends with those you wish to, date and love whoever makes you happy. Your father and I were forcefully married for political gain. This is not the fate I wish for you my son, and is why I fought to dissuade you father pledging you to the Parkinson girl. The only advice I can give is to follow your own heart, and I will support any decision you choose to make, including those that oppose Lucius._

 _Your loving mother,_

 _Narcissa Black Malfoy._

Draco's head swam with indecision. On the one hand, he had craved his father's affection for his whole life, but on the other, his friends trusted and cared about him. Draco decided to ask the only other adult whose opinion he could trust, his godfather, Professor Snape.

As the four Gryffindors left the castle to walk down to the village, Draco crossed the entrance hall and descended to the dungeons. He arrived at Snape's privet rooms sooner than he realized, and stopped as he heard raised voices from inside. Draco could not make out the words, so he waited patiently until the door burst open, and Karkaroff stormed out and away, not even noticing Draco. But Professor Snape did, "Mr. Malfoy," he said coolly as Karkaroff disappeared around a corner, "what can I do for you?"

"May I come in sir?" Draco asked hesitantly. His godfather didn't look like he wanted visitors right now, but he nodded, standing aside and letting Draco enter. Draco settled onto the couch in front of the rarely used fireplace, and waited for Severus to sit in his preferred armchair. "What's on your mind Draco?" he asked, revealing the calm warmth that had sprung up more visibly after Faykan was assaulted.

Draco showed him both letters, unable to trust his voice right now. The Potion Master read them over quickly, and then just sat there, absorbing the information passively for several moments. Draco mustered what strength he could, and finally spoke, in a rather strained voice, "What should I do, Sir?"

His godfather watched him for several seconds before speaking, "I cannot make this decision for you Draco. You must be the one to choose your path now. But I will say that I hold to the same promise that you mother does. No matter your choice, as long as it is indeed your choice, I will support it in any way I can."

Draco sighed resignedly. This was not what he had wanted to hear, yet still reassuring the both his godfather and mother would help him in whatsoever decision he made concerning his life.

"Thank you Sir. I'm going to go and… think things over for a while." Draco said absently, standing and excusing himself. He decided to return to his dormitory to weigh out his options. Hopefully Nott had gone to Hogsmeade and wouldn't be there to disturb him.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus sighed as he softly argued and struggled to persuade Hagrid into returning to work. He had affirmed that despite what people were clamoring for, he would not be dismissing Hagrid from the staff, and neither would he lose his teaching position. Albus knew that Hagrid was a gentle soul, and would never intentionally put anyone in harm's way, especially those he cared about, such as the students of Hogwarts.

But Hagrid was also stubborn. He absolutely refused to even leave his cabin, stating flatly that no one wanted him to stay, and that he should just leave Hogwarts completely. Albus was about to question where Hagrid thought he would be able to go, when someone starting pounding on the door, and shouted, "Hagrid! Hagrid that's enough! We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mum was a giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you! Hagrid, get out here, you're just being…"

Albus stepped over and opened the door. Miss Granger was revealed, with Harry, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Undol right behind her. Miss Granger looked furious about something, and started saying, "About t…!" as the door was opened, but stopped as she found herself face-to-face, not with Hagrid, but with Albus.

"Good afternoon," Albus said pleasantly, smiling down grandfatherly at them all.

"We, err… we wanted to see Hagrid," said Miss Granger in a rather small voice.

"Yes, I surmised as much," Albus responded, allowing his eyes to 'twinkle' in their usual fashion as he used legilimency on them all, with the exception of Undol. . "Why don't you come in?" he said after gleaning their intentions. They would be most helpful in returning Hagrid to work.

"Oh... um... okay," said Miss Granger.

Albus stood aside as the four Gryffindors entered into the cabin; as Hagrid's boarhound, Fang, launched himself upon Harry to try and lick his ears, Albus studied Undol's face. He was still looking strained and weary, if you looked closely enough. But parts of the boy's inner strength had returned, probably assisted by the encounter with the unicorn that Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank had told Albus about.

"Hi, Hagrid," said Harry after he had fended off the boarhound.

Hagrid looked up. "'Lo," he said in a very hoarse voice.

"More tea, I think," Albus said, closing the door behind the students, drew out his wand, and twiddling it; conjuring a tea tray in midair along with a plate of cakes. Albus levitated the tray onto the table, and everybody sat down. There was a slight pause, and then Albus said, "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Granger was shouting, Hagrid?" Hermione went slightly pink, but Albus smiled at her and continued, "Hermione, Harry, Faykan, and Ron still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door."

"Of course we still want to know you!" Harry said, staring at Hagrid. "You don't think anything that Skeeter cow… sorry, Professor," he added quickly, looking at Albus.

"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said. Harry," he said, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.

"Err… right," said Harry sheepishly. "I just meant, Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what that… woman, wrote about you?"

Two fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's beetle black eyes and fell slowly into his tangled beard.

"Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid," Albus said, still looking carefully up at the ceiling. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it…"

"Not all of 'em," said Hagrid hoarsely. "Not all of 'em wan me ter stay."

"Really, Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time," Albus sighed, looking down to peer sternly over his half moon spectacles. "Not a week has passed since I became Headmaster of this school when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it. But what should I do? Barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"

Undol sniggered slightly, but Albus chose to ignore him.

"Yeh… yeh're not half-giant!" said Hagrid croakily.

"Hagrid, look what I've got for relatives!" Harry said furiously. "Look at the Dursleys!"

"An excellent point," Albus stated. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery..."

"Come back and teach, Hagrid," said Miss Granger quietly, "please come back, we really miss you."

Hagrid gulped. More tears leaked out down his cheeks and into his tangled beard. Albus stood up, lowering his ultimatum. "I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday," he said. "You will join me for breakfast at eight thirty in the Great Hall. No excuses. Good afternoon to you all."

Albus then left the cabin, pausing only to scratch Fang's ears. When the door had shut behind him, Albus smiled. Hagrid would return, Harry wouldn't rest until his friends were happy and whole, even to the detriment of himself. It was one of the qualities that would make him the perfect tool against Voldemort's inevitable return.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You Have Been Warned**

 _So, this chapter actually remains somewhat consistent with its original draft, granted its rolling off the back of the heavily clanged previous chapter alters the tone and canter of this one. Until next time! ~F_


	56. Y4-C12: Choices

_Many thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter! It's very strange for me to be updating this story every week now, but luckily I have plenty of content to get used to it. Please enjoy the next chapter! ~F_

 **Chapter Twelve**

 **Choices**

Draco had determined a test to finally make up his mind. He had been avoiding the Gryffindors for almost a week since the letters from his parents arrived. During that time he had been weighing the options, trying to come to a decision as to what would be best for him to do: obey his father, or remain with his friends.

In the end it was some of Faykan's teachings that lead to his plan, a test to see what was the best choice. He would use the Patronus charm to determine the strength of his love for his father versus the love of his friends. Whichever produced a stronger charm would be the choice he took. His mother and Professor Snape were right, his heart must decide.

Summoning all the thoughts of his father, and the emotions surrounding him, Draco waved his wand. " _Expecto Patronum._ " Silver streamed from his wand, coating him in the love and respect he had for his father. But… suddenly came the memories of his second year, and the knowledge that his father purposely threatened children just to carry out his personal grudges. The Patronus faltered. Then came the third year, where Lucius had supported Nott and his father's false claims about Hagrid and Buckbeak. The silvery lights diminished again. And finally the suspicion that his father only cared about him as much as his reputation was concerned, and that thought alone broke his concentration. The Patronus vanished.

Draco sighed, downcast. His father didn't truly love him in return, and that soiled any ability for Draco to summon happy memories that included him.

Next, Draco filled himself with thoughts of Harry, who'd shared tender moments with him their first Christmas at Hogwarts; Hermione, who he had spirited discussions and several good laughs with; Ron, who he respected as a loyal if hot tempered friend; and Faykan, who had stood up for him ever since their second meeting, urging the rest to accept him, to become his friends.

Silver mist poured forth from his wand tip, enveloping the room with soft light. Finally, Draco's thoughts turned to Ginny, and the night they had spent together at the Yule Ball, the secrets they had shared about their feelings toward each other. Ginny had admitted to being infatuated with him since the end of his second year, after they were together rescued from the Chamber of Secrets. Draco had, in turn, revealed that he had noticed and relished the affection she freely gave him, affection he had only had from his own mother.

The Patronus light exploded in strength and volume, emerging as a small wren-like bird, that sang a high piping song while it flew around the abandoned room Draco had secluded himself in. Draco watched, amazed as the little bird spiraled and twisted in midair, relishing the fact that he finally had produced a corporeal Patronus. Not only that, but his course had be decided, he would stay true to his friends, and his father's reputation be cursed. Lucius would be furious with Draco, but watching his newborn Patronus and remembering the returned love and friendship that Draco now had, he didn't care. People would be there for him, no matter what.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione wandered in early to the Room of Requirement Sunday, wanting to get ahead on her reading for History of Magic. What she didn't expect was for Faykan to already be in the room, watching the door intently as she entered.

"Oh, hello Fay," she greeted cheerfully as she noticed him.

"Hello Hermione," he replied, watching her sit down across the table that held the _Palantír_ from him. "I think there's something you have wanted to discuss with me since last year. Something that regards a certain vision you witnessed in this," he gestured to the _Palantír_.

Hermione gasped slightly, she had told nobody about her vision, so how could Faykan have found out?

"How did you…"

"It's not important how I know, I just do." Fay chided gently. "Now, I know you may have many questions about what you saw, but I want you to know, first and foremost. The _Palantír_ does not show the definite future, as that is nearly impossible. Even gifts such as prophecy and foresight can only see the fluid future, or the future that _may_ be. Only very few things are certain in the world."

"I do not know what exactly you saw, only that it involved myself and a dim and frightening future, judging from your reaction to reliving it from the boggart during the Defense final last year." Faykan continued. He was smiling kindly at her, "but I do not want to know, it is not my place to know. Be aware that I would do nothing to harm those I care about, those that I _love_."

"I know," Hermione whispered, loud enough for Faykan to still hear her. "I feel like I've always known. The way you love Harry, I know you would do nothing to harm any of us, but it was so terrifying."

She then described the visions she had witnessed, in spite of Faykan's previous statement of not caring what it was about. Faykan listened in silence, and only spoke when Hermione had finished.

"What you may have seen Hermione, was one possible future where Harry died that night that Pettigrew escaped. It was definitely something that I feared to have happen, because many things depend on Harry's continued survival, things I cannot tell you at this time," he added as Hermione opened her mouth. "You know that I do not trust Albus Dumbledore, and that vision shows why, he would try to force me to take Harry's place should he fail in his tasks. And I would fall into darkness, becoming as evil as Voldemort himself, if not more so. And the world would not survive the evil I _could_ unleash upon it." Faykan said, turning aside as tears trailed down his face.

Hermione was silent for a long moment, before she opened her mouth once more, wanting to ask regarding the Goblet of Fire, but Faykan beat her to it. "And then there's this…" he said, pulling the wooden cup from under the table.

"Why did you take it?" Hermione asked, concerned that she'd have to report him.

"It wasn't theirs to use in the first place," Faykan replied cryptically, looking at the goblet with reverence. "There are things in this world no longer meant for mortals…"

Hermione longed to ask more, but at that moment the door to the room opened again, and Harry, Ron, and Draco entered. Draco was smiling from ear to ear as he saw Faykan, and brandished his wand.

"Look at this," he said, waving it happily, " _Expecto Patronum!_ " a silvery bird exploded from his wand, spiraling and turning about the room, singing a sweet melody in high pitches that often left the range that Hermione could hear.

Faykan followed the bird around with his eyes, his mouth open in surprised wonder, "A _Kirniki_ , one of the wrens of __Númenor__ _. Congratulations Draco, your Patronus is beautiful."_

Draco beamed, and allowed the little silvery bird to vanish. He, Harry, and Ron crossed to the table Hermione and Faykan sat at, and joined them around it.

"So," said Ron as they all sat, "What's planned for today?" he asked nonchalantly.

In response, Faykan pulled out the vials of potion that Hermione had stored for him while he was recovering in the Hospital Wing. Everyone brightened instantly, recognizing the Animal Spirit potion.

"Wicked…" Harry breathed as they each picked up one of the five vials. Hermione watched as Faykan removed the covering of the _Palantír_ , and they each scooted their chairs forward, awaiting Faykan's instructions.

"I want each of you to drink the potion, and stare into the swirling mists of the _Palantír_ , the animal spirit potion will give you glimpses of life through your animagus form's eyes." He said.

Eagerly, Ron, Draco and Harry downed the potion and gazed into the orb's depths. Hermione followed suit, after seeing their eyes glass over as they sank into their visions. Faykan smiled encouragingly as Hermione tipped the vial back. Staring into the blackness of the _Palantír_ , Hermione felt a slight twinge of unease, but soon that melted into nothing as her eyes unfocused.

It was a sensation she had never felt before, of loftiness and freedom. She was soaring above the clouds, able to see for miles in every direction. Her wings beat at her sides, spreading out to catch the currents of air, suspending her as long as she wished. Looking down, Hermione's eyes focused until she could spot even the small blade of grass. A small rustle here and there, and suddenly a tiny mouse appeared out of a clump of grass. Hermione dived, eager to impale the creature on her sharp talons.

And suddenly the vision vanished. She was back in the Room of Requirement. Faykan was grinning as their eyes refocused, returning their consciousness to Hogwarts. "That was amazing!" Ron declared.

Faykan smiled at him, "Now that you've all had a taste of how it will feel to be in your forms, you need to research what animal you were, so you can effectively visualize what to turn into. I expect this to be the longest part of the process, possibly taking one or two years at the most, with my assistance that is." Hermione had expected as much. Even if they used the powerful artifact that the _Palantír_ was, becoming an animagus wasn't going to be as easy as placing the Occlumency shields into their minds.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry had decided to take Professor Snape's advice to both help Faykan and possibly work out the egg's clue. He could have used the Room of Requirement, but there was a greater chance of Ron, Draco or Hermione walking in on what they were doing, and Harry didn't want Faykan to become uncomfortable. He knew his friend trusted the others, but despite the leaps and bounds that Faykan had taken to return to near normalcy, Harry still noticed the slight cringes when anyone other than himself or Professor Snape came too close.

He convinced Faykan to come with him, as well as Hermione and Ron to stay, by saying he wanted to try working out the egg clue, just as Snape had suggested. It worked perfectly, Hermione smiled as they made their way out of the portrait hole late Thursday night, Harry under the invisibility cloak and bringing the Marauder's Map while Faykan changed into his fox animagus form outside the common room. Once Hermione let Harry out, Faykan followed him by his scent as Harry led the way down to the prefects' bathroom.

It was awkward moving under the cloak tonight, because Harry had the heavy egg under one arm and the map held in front of his nose with the other. However, the moonlit corridors were empty and silent, and by checking the map at strategic intervals, Harry was able to ensure that they wouldn't run into anyone they would rather avoid. When he and Faykan reached the statue of Boris the Bewildered, a lost-looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands, he located the right door, leaned close to it, and muttered the password, "Pine fresh," just as Snape had told him.

The door creaked open. Harry slipped inside, and bolted the door after Faykan entered behind him, and pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, and looked around.

Harry's immediate reaction was that it would be worth becoming a prefect just to be able to use this bathroom. It was softly lit by a splendid candle filled chandelier, and everything was made of white marble, including what looked like an empty, rectangular swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor.

About a hundred golden taps stood all around the pools edges, each with a differently colored jewel set into its handle. There was even a diving board. Long white linen curtains hung at the windows; a large pile of fluffy white towels sat in a corner, and there was a single golden-framed painting on the wall. It featured a blonde mermaid who was fast asleep on a rock, her long hair over her face. It fluttered every time she snored.

Faykan resumed his human form and warded the door so they wouldn't be disturbed accidentally, then followed Harry toward the many taps near the swimming pool sized bath. Thankfully Harry remembered the summer before last when Faykan had taken him to his home and taught him many different things, including how to swim, as the bath was very deep, and there were only a few placed to sit comfortably above the water when it was filled. Harry grabbed a pair of towels and tossed one to Faykan, setting his towel down with the egg, his Invisibility cloak, and the Marauder's map as he knelt down to turn several of the taps on.

He could tell at once that they carried different sorts of bubble bath mixed with the water, though it wasn't bubble bath as Harry had ever experienced it. One tap gushed pink and blue bubbles the size of footballs; while another poured ice-white foam so thick that Harry thought it would have supported his weight if he'd cared to test it; a third sent heavily perfumed purple clouds hovering over the surface of the water. Harry amused himself for awhile turning the taps on and off, particularly enjoying the effect of one whose jet bounced off the surface of the water in large arcs. Then, when the deep pool was full of hot water, foam, and bubbles, which took a very short time considering its size, Harry turned off all the taps.

"Um, Harry…" Faykan asked at last when he stood again, "Why are we here? How is this going to help us solve the egg clue?"

Harry tried to remember what Professor Snape had said, but the thought escaped him. It had been something to do with water, but the more pressing matter on his mind had been Faykan when he had had the conversation, so naturally he remembered better the part that had to do with his best friend. And what Professor Snape had asked him to do was discover the identity of the person who had attacked and cursed Faykan, and this was one time he would not disappoint the stern Potion Master.

"We're here not so much for the egg as we are for you, Faykan," Harry said slowly. He knew Faykan was not going to be too pleased when Harry pressed him, but it _was_ for his own good after all.

"What are you talking about?" Faykan asked warily. Harry could tell he was starting to add up what was going on, so he had to hurry.

"Faykan, we really need to talk, about what happened during the Yule Ball…" Faykan was already shaking his head, his eyes wide with the strain of trying not to remember. "Please, Faykan, I know what happened to you not only attacked but affected with a dark curse," Harry paused, summoning all his courage to force words to come.

Faykan started to back away, covering his head in an effort to drown out Harry's voice, but Harry seized his hands, pulling him back toward the bath, "Please Fay, please let me help you, let me make sure the person who did this to you is punished…"

"No…" Faykan said softly, trying to pull himself away from Harry, but Harry held him fast, preventing any movement. "You don't understand… it won't matter, it will make no difference if I tell…"

"It will Fay," Harry said in his gentlest voice, "Professor Snape will make sure whoever hurt you is punished."

"No!" Faykan yelled, ripping himself away from Harry, and turning away, angry tears sliding down his face. "It won't! I won't allow _him_ to have this kind of power over me!" he yelled, kicking out at the closest object, Harry's golden egg. It flew across the room, clanged against the wall, bursting open. The screeching lasted only for several seconds, as with an enormous splash, the egg fell into the pool. Both boys looked, transfixed as it sank to the bottom.

The screeching had stopped.

In its place was a muted kind of singing, but Harry couldn't make out the sounds with the egg under the water. Then he remembered, Snape had practically given him the answer, _underwater_ , he had said to ponder the egg underwater. He and Faykan looked at each other, their argument forgotten for now. Then together they immediately started tearing their weightier clothes off, diving into the pool to investigate the egg.

Once underwater, Harry could hear the song perfectly,

" _Come seek us where our voices sound,_

 _We cannot sing above the ground,_

 _And while you re searching, ponder this:_

 _We've taken what you'll sorely miss,_

 _An hour long you'll have to look,_

 _And to recover what we took,_

 _But past an hour, the prospect's black,_

 _Too late, it's gone, it won't come back_ "

They both resurfaced at the same instant, gasping large breaths of air as they swam back to one of the sitting ledges, Faykan closing the egg and returning it to sit near his and Harry's possessions. "Harry, that's it, do you remember when we went to Hogsmeade, and we saw Krum diving into the lake, this is why. The next task has something to do with the lake… that was mersong. I'll bet you anything they're merpeople in the lake!"

Harry was suddenly very glad that Faykan had taught him to swim, but one thing was still pestering him, "Faykan, how are we supposed to breathe?" he said slowly.

"Oh, that's not going to be a problem, there are many different ways around that. No, what's important is figuring out what we're supposed to find down there, according to the song the merfolk are going to take something of ours, something we have to get back…" he trailed off as he looked at Harry, who was suddenly remembering their conversation right before the egg was kicked into the bath.

"Faykan, will you please tell me who attacked you?" he asked, taking Faykan's hands again. Faykan turned away slightly, but Harry could see tears trailing down his face again. "Please… don't make me…" he said in a small voice.

Harry suddenly realized how fragile his friend still was right now. He had put up a powerful front, an illusion for the world to see, but now with Harry, he had finally let the mask slide away, showing how truly scared he was. "I'm sorry Faykan, but I have to…" Harry said. Tears were streaming down Faykan's face now, and he leaned into Harry, soft sobs starting as he buried his face into Harry's shoulder.

Harry ran small circles down Faykan's back as he made soft shushing sounds, waiting for Faykan to settle down again. "Faykan, was it Nott?" Harry said softly, and he felt Faykan nod into his shoulder as the sobs increased again, "I'm so sorry Fay. We should have seen it coming."

"It's my fault…" Faykan sobbed.

"What?" Harry said confused, pushing Faykan upright to see his face.

"The letter Terry Boot sent me, it was a warning that Nott might try something soon, but… but I ignored it, and he… and he…"

"Shh." Harry said softly, "It's over now, and Professor Snape will make sure he can't do it again. I promise you…"

Faykan's sobs slowed, and he smiled slightly at Harry, "Thank you, Harry." and before Harry could react, Faykan had leaned forward again, wrapped his arms around Harry's neck, and continued to cry in silence.

Harry held his best friend for several minutes, rubbing small circles across Faykan's back, until they were both shocked out of the moment but a high pitched giggling. "Ahh, what a cute moment," the voice of Moaning Myrtle cooed as she floated out of one of the stalls. It was clearly one event too much tonight for Faykan, as he tore himself from Harry and heaved out of the bath, transforming as he went, and bolted for the door, which opened magically for him before slamming shut.

Harry swore loudly and wandlessly flung a blinding hex at Myrtle before hauling himself out of the bath. The perverted ghost shrieked and sped away through the far wall. Harry pulled his clothes back on after drying himself quickly, gathered his egg, the map, Faykan's clothes, and then threw the Invisibility cloak around himself.

As Harry climbed back to the tower, he had to dodge around Mrs. Norris, whipping around a corner rather quicker than he would have liked, which cause the objects he was holding to wobble. He fumbled for a few moments, but managed to steady them, and was able to continue on his way. He never noticed the Marauder's Map flutter to the ground in his wake, or the bright blue magical eye following him from the shadows behind a statue, than travel to the parchment left behind after he had gone.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was sitting in the common room, waiting for Harry and Faykan to return from their outing to work out the egg clue, when the fat lady's portrait opened, and Faykan the fox flew through, straight past Hermione and up the boy's staircase. Hermione looked up confused, noting the small trail of water that followed. Several moments later, Harry came in, carrying his egg, the Invisibility cloak, and strangely of all, what looked like Faykan's clothes, "What's going on Harry?" Hermione said sternly, looking at the pile of clothes in his hands, "if you pranked Faykan in the state he's in…"

"I didn't prank Faykan, Hermione… Myrtle…" Harry shook his head sadly as he lost the trail of his sentence.

Hermione's eyes widened, "Tell me everything that happened," she said, and listened patiently as Harry told her about the argument he and Faykan had to discover who had attacked Faykan. She gasped as Harry told her that Faykan had not only been beaten, but cursed by his attacker, and that Snape had asked Harry to help find the identity of the person.

Then he told her about the egg, and how they discovered the clue within it, followed by Faykan's tear filled confession that Nott had been the one to attack him, finally ending with Myrtle interrupting and scaring Faykan away.

By the time Harry was done, his entire face was bright red from sharing more personal moments, and he refused to maintain eye contact with Hermione for more than a few seconds. Hermione personally was very pleased that Faykan had finally given in and accused Nott of the attack.

After several more minutes, Harry finally left to go to bed, leaving Hermione to sit and ponder what to do next. Personally she had hoped that this event might have caused Faykan to finally reveal his secret love for Harry, but it was not to be, and Hermione wouldn't push the matter at this time. There were things far more important than that right now.

The next day, however, proved to Hermione that Faykan was still too embarrassed about what had happened to even look at Harry. He sat as far from Harry as he could without rousing suspicion, usually on the far side of Ron, who as usual, was oblivious to most things that happened between them. Harry tried to talk to Faykan all during Charms, but Faykan couldn't even look at him with flushing bright red and turning away.

Harry sent an owl to Sirius to ask about the egg clue, and then, in lack of Faykan's ability to speak to him, asked for Hermione and Ron's help in discovering ways to breathe underwater for an hour on the day of the second task.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus watched the obvious discomfort between Potter and Fay…Undol during their next Potions lesson. The way Undol would shift nervously as he worked with Potter at their cauldron, how he avoided all eye contact from his partner, and how he refused to speak to Potter at all.

Consequently their potion didn't meet Severus' strict standards for acceptable potions. "Potter! Undol! Stay after class…" Severus barked as the bell rang. He noticed Granger's look of triumph at his words and grew more curious as to what was going on between the two boys.

After the rest of the class filed out, Severus faced the two boys, "Potter," he said calmly, "will you be so kind as to inform me why your potion is bright orange, with both your brilliant minds, I expect better results from you as a combined group."

After several moments of awkward silence, Severus cleared his throat and addressed Potter. "Would it be easier if I sent Mr. Undol back to your common room Mr. Potter, or should I just ask him myself what occurred?"

Potter flush grew stronger as he started to stutter slightly, "I…I…I don't think it would be easier either way… Sir." His eyes fluttered over to Undol again, and the other boy shifted nervously away from the gaze.

Severus frowned, "then will you at least report what you discovered, if anything regarding Undol's attacker or the Triwizard clue."

"Both Sir," Potter said, now also refusing to look at his companion. "Faykan… confirmed… that Theodore Nott did indeed attack, and cursed him…"

Severus nodded, concealing the rage building inside him at the Nott boy. "And the egg?"

Undol finally spoke, so soft and quiet that Severus had to strain to make out everything he said.

"We need to find something in the black lake in under an hour, something the merfolk will have taken."

"I see." Severus said, turning back to Potter. He knew from Undol's last show of magic that he was quiet capable of surviving underwater for as long as he pleased, however, Potter would possibly need assistance. "Potter, do you know how you will survive under the lake for the duration?"

"No, Sir."

"Might I suggest the use of Gillyweed…?"

"Gillyweed?"

"Yes Potter, Gillyweed. A rare herb from the Mediterranean that gives anyone who consumes it gills for a duration. If you so desire I can supply you with enough for the hour in the lake, as well as deliver it to you right before the task as to not arouse suspicion of the other champions."

"But, wouldn't that be cheating, Sir?"

"It would," Severus admitted, "If you and Mr. Undol had actually entered yourselves, but seeing how I do not believe you to do such a dunderheaded thing as that, you need not adhere to the champion's rules about accepting outside assistance. I'm sure your dogfather had already sent you several letter to offer his own suggestions, so why not I?"

Potter looked at a complete loss for words, "Thank you Sir, I would appreciate the help very much." Severus smiled, and then sent the boy back to his common room, holding Undol back for a while longer. Now without the distraction of Potter, the boy seemed slightly more interactive.

"Undol… firstly, did Nott attack you during the ball?" Undol nodded, tears starting to well up in his eyes again. "Very well, I will deal with him. Secondly, what is going on between you and Potter, what of earth could have caused such a rift between you two? A rift, I might add, that Potter seems determined to repair, but you do not."

Undol remained silent for a long time, staring at his feet, until Severus crouched down and put an hand on the boy's shoulder, "does it have to do with your… feelings for Potter?" he asked tentatively. Undol looked up at him, wide eyed. "Oh yes Undol, I know. I know what Nott had seen in you when you look at Potter, the thing he resented so much that he tried to take it for himself." The boy started to weep again, and Severus found his arms filled with the crying teen. Slowly, he wrapped them around Undol, comforting him as best he could.

"It… Its nothing like what you think Severus…" the boy whimpered, burying himself deeper into Severus' robes.

"Then what is it?" Severus asked gently, "Why do you need to sacrifice yourself so completely Fay…Undol…" Severus cursed himself inwardly for almost calling the boy by his first name.

He must have caught the slip up as well, because Undol chuckled slightly, but it came out as several more sobs, "For the same reason you distanced yourself from _her_ …" he whispered, "Keeping Harry safe is the priority, above anything else."

Undol suddenly pulled away from Severus, smiling sadly as he wiped his eyes with a sleeve, "I should be going, I still need to decide how to approach the lake myself," he said, and turned to leave. Severus released him, and the boy slipped out the dungeon door. After he left, Severus wondered how the boy had know about his relationship with Lily Potter…

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Two days before the second task, Sirius' reply returned via the same school owl Harry had sent.

 _Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl._

Harry turned the parchment over and looked at the back, hoping to see something else, but it was blank.

"Weekend after next," whispered Hermione, who had read the note over Harry's shoulder. "Here, take my quill and send this owl back straight away."

Harry scribbled the dates down on the back of Sirius's letter, tied it onto the brown owl's leg, and watched it take flight again.

Since Professor Snape had promised to help Harry with the second task, he wasn't worried about Sirius' lack of help; what really worried him was the lack of anything else in the message. That meant that Sirius didn't trust using owls to talk to Harry anymore. What if the dementors were closing in on him?

And what was worse was that Faykan was still partially avoiding him. Harry couldn't blame him, as he himself was having a hard time fully understanding all the things that happened in the prefect's bathroom behind the scenes. Thoughts of what and why these kinds of things always happened to him and those around him plagued Harry the entire way down to Care of Magical Creatures.

Hagrid had indeed returned to his jobs, and thankfully had stopped his lessons about the Blast-Ended Skrewts. He had been continuing Professor Grubbly-Plank's lessons on unicorns ever since he'd returned to work. It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found them more disappointing.

Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full grown unicorns, they were pure gold. Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them, and even Pansy Parkinson had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them.

"Easier ter spot than the adults," Hagrid told the class. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun' four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin' when they're babies... don mind boys so much... C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want... give 'em a few o' these sugar lumps...

"You okay. Harry?" Hagrid muttered, moving aside slightly, while most of the others swarmed around the baby unicorns.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Jus' nervous, eh?" said Hagrid.

"A bit," said Harry rather distractedly.

"Yeh're goin' ter do jus' fine Harry, jus' fine. I know it. I can feel it."

Harry managed a small smile, and then realized he was watching Faykan and the two unicorn foals. The golden animals were in return watching Harry, their blue eyes shining with understanding and a purity that caused tears to form in Harry's eyes. Suddenly he knew, regardless of whatever was going on in Faykan's head, Harry wanted to remain his friend above anything else. And he was going to tell Faykan this, even if he had to tie his friend down to prevent him from running away.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead: You have been Warned**

 _So, this chapter... the bookend from the previous section that at one time might have changed the direction of the story drastically, and was inevitably cut. before getting to that, obviously the sections referencing the Goblet of Fire, and Faykan's possession of it is new, indicating a deeper relationship between the artifact and the powerful young wizard. Getting to the heart of the differences. I am aware how awkward the prefect bathroom scene might come across as. there was originally a far different outcome that was supposed to occur, which would have started a romantic subplot... and therein you can probably tell exactly why I eventually decided against it and dropped the potentially distracting and highly uncharacteristic actions that led to it. in the end it just felt inappropriate to have that manner of relationship between the two primary characters, and this is the point where I decided to create the side plot where Hermione thinks there is a romantic relationship where there isn't, which made significantly more sense. Fay and Harry are as close a platonic friends can possible be, which does borderline a romantic relationship, but never actually crosses the line, which is something that in the mid 90s would have been quite real, and not questioned as homosexual in the slightest, like it would be today. Personally I think this is why people aren't as close to each other, especially men and boys, as they used to be. there's too much risk these days to reach out to people because of the immediate assumption of others that any close relationship HAS to be romantic... Fanfiction ironically does not help in this assumption, when easily 80-90% is all romantic pairings of characters that canonically have no feelings for each other, especially two male characters. returning to the thought at hand, steering away from that trope is what happened, and even now I do not have the exact thoughts of how best to have the needed scene with the egg to occur and the needed conversation between the two. what ended up, the scene in tha chapter, I find acceptable at best, and decided it was not worth stressing over instead of moving on and completing the rest of the story. maybe i'm wrong and the scene works out just fine, my own vision being distracted by what once could have been, but idk. let me know what you think, itr would actually be very helpful. does the scene in question come across as awkward and out of place, or does it actually fit into the story just fine? much thanks and talk to you at the end of the next chapter! ~F_


	57. Y4-C13: Task of Water

_Thanks to the few that reviewed the previous chapter, and their comments regarding the content. it is a relief to me that the changes felt natural to the readers, even if they did not for me. We have about another month's worth of chapters for Book Four to go, and I know while many are clamoring for faster updates, we need this methodical pace or else I would metaphorically lose my mind. the structure is important to keep me on task daily, and mixing it up right now wouldn't be wise among all the other things I have going on. Still, enjoy the next chapter, and talk to you all again next week! ~F_

 **Chapter Thirteen**

 **Task of Water**

Hermione had devised a scheme to get Harry and Faykan to talk again. Draco had agreed to help her, while Ron remained unaware. Honestly, sometimes that boy could be so thick. The plan was relatively simple, utilize the Room of Requirement to make a place specific designed to keep Harry and Faykan in unless they worked together to get out. Hermione would wait in the Gryffindor common room in case one or the other tried to escape in that direction while Draco watched the seventh floor entrance.

Getting the two boys inside wasn't going to be that difficult either, Hermione mused as she saw Fred and George enter the common room. The only problem that might arise would be…

"Oi, Ron, Hermione. Professor McGonagall wants to see you two…" Fred called as they came over to her chair.

"We're supposed to take you down to her office, dunno why though." George said.

Wondering what Professor McGonagall would want, Hermione followed the three Weasleys out of the common room, her cunning plan completely forgotten.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Albus smiled as Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley joined Minerva, Mr. Malfoy, the younger Miss Delacour, himself, and the rest of the Triwizard judges in Minerva's office. Mr. Percy Weasley was standing in for Barty Crouch, but Albus had heard the recent news of his taking ill, therefore he did not fret. The two Gryffindors looked confusedly at their Slytherin friend and the rest of the assembly.

"What's going on? Why are we here?" Mr. Weasley asked as he and Miss Granger entered.

"That, Mr. Weasley, is just what we are about to discuss, now that we are all assembled." Albus said cheerfully. "As you all know, the Second Task takes place tomorrow. What you and the champions do not know however, is that their task is to recover something dear to them from the bottom of the Black Lake. A treasure if you will. To give the champions the feel of danger, your four," he indicated the four children, "Will be put into enchanted sleep and taken under the lake for the champions to rescue, one for each champion."

"You're metal!" Mr. Weasley proclaimed, but Albus chuckled merrily.

"I assure you that no one will come to any harm, when you resurface the spell will dissipate, and if your champion cannot rescue you for whatever reason, the merpeople will return you to the surface after the time limit expires."

All three students start to protest immediately, but Albus waved his wand. They, along with the young Miss Delacour, slumped to the ground fast asleep. Another wave and they were floating in midair, ready to be taken down to the lake and submerged into the watery depths.

Albus was personally looking forward to what Faykan Undol would do in order to accomplish this task.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry could feel his worry starting to creep up again as he made his way down to the lake with the other three champions. Fleur and Krum looked bored, while Faykan would occasionally steal glances at Harry, then immediately look elsewhere with his face flushing slightly. Harry was sure that Draco, Hermione and Ron would have been here to cheer him and Faykan on, but they were not.

Where could they be? Harry guessed they had to be in the stands across the lake with the rest of the spectators. The judges were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water's edge as the champions arrived. Professor Snape, McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey were there as well. Snape purposely stepped past Harry, and pressed a large, slimy clump of Gillyweed into Harry's hand, nodding as he passed.

Harry kept the plant clutched tightly in his grip, as he had no pockets in his swimming trunks, and took several deep breaths to steady himself. Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was holding his wand ready.

"All right. Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?"

"Yeah," Harry said, trying to sneak another glance at Faykan, who was between Fleur and Krum. He still looked rather skinny in his short trunks and tight shirt, much like Harry himself, but there was still more muscle that the other boy had grown there over the last three years…

Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze, which jolted Harry out of checking out his best friend, and returned to the judges' table; he pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said, " _Sonorous!_ " and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them.

On the count of three, the: One... two... three!"

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause. They all dashed towards the water, Harry put the Gillyweed in his mouth and began chewing furiously as he waded into the lake; it felt unpleasantly slimy and rubbery, like octopus tentacles.

Waist-deep in the freezing water he stopped, swallowed, and risked another glance at his best friend, he saw Faykan waving his wand in a complex pattern as he splashed through the water, his face and body elongating and his skin turning silvery-blue. Finally he dove beneath the surface, and Harry saw the whip of a tail flash before slipping under the water.

Then, quite suddenly, Harry felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed over his mouth and nose. He tried to draw breath, but it made his head spin; his lungs were empty, and he suddenly felt a piercing pain on either side of his neck.

Harry clapped his hands around his throat and felt two large slits just below his ears, flapping in the cold air... He had gills. Without pausing to think, he did the only thing that made sense, he flung himself forward into the water.

The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. His head had stopped spinning; he took another great gulp of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain. He stretched out his hands in front of him and stared at them. They looked green and ghostly under the water, and they had become webbed. He twisted around and looked at his bare feet, they had become elongated and the toes were webbed too. It looked as though he had sprouted flippers.

The water didn't feel icy anymore either... on the contrary, he felt pleasantly cool and very light... Harry struck out once more, marveling at how far and fast his flipper like feet propelled him through the water, and noticing how clearly he could see, and how he no longer seemed to need to blink. He had soon swum so far into the lake that he could no longer see the bottom. He flipped over and dived into its depths.

Silence pressed upon his ears as he soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. He could only see ten feet around him, so that as he sped through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the incoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. He swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, his eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray lit water around him to the shadow beyond, where the water became opaque.

Small fish flickered past him like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw something larger moving ahead of him, but when he got nearer, he discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, nor, thankfully, the giant squid.

Light green weed stretched ahead of him as far as he could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Harry was staring unblinkingly ahead of him, trying to discern shapes through the gloom... and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle.

Harry twisted his body around and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weed, its long fingers clutched tightly around Harry's leg, its pointed fangs bared. Harry fumbled for his wand on his write holster. By the time he had removed it; two more grindylows had risen out of the weed and were attempting to drag him down.

" _Relashio!_ " Harry shouted, except that no sound came out... A large bubble issued from his mouth, and his wand, instead of sending sparks at the grindylows, pelted them with what seemed to be a jet of boiling water, for where it struck them, angry red patches appeared on their green skin.

Harry pulled his ankle out of the grindylow's grip and swam, as fast as he could, occasionally sending more jets of hot water over his shoulder at random; every now and then he felt one of the grindylows snatch at his foot again, and he kicked out, hard; finally, he felt his foot connect with a horned skull, and looking back, saw the dazed grindylow floating away, cross eyed, while its fellows shook their fists at Harry and sank back into the weed.

Harry slowed down a little, slipped his wand back into his holster, and looked around, listening again. He turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against his eardrums. He knew he must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed.

"How are you getting on?" said a voice out of the gloom.

Harry thought he was having a heart attack. He whipped around and saw Moaning Myrtle floating hazily in front of him, gazing at him through her thick, pearly glasses.

"Myrtle!" Harry tried to shout, but once again, nothing came out of his mouth but a very large bubble. Moaning Myrtle actually giggled clearly having forgotten about Harry blinding her.

"You want to try over there!" she said, pointing. "I won't come with you... I don't like them much; they always chase me when I get too close..."

Harry gave her the thumbs-up to show his thanks and set off once more, careful to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there.

He swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. He was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as he disturbed the water.

Then, at long last, he heard a snatch of haunting mersong.

" _An hour long you'll have to look,_

 _And to recover what we took..._ "

Harry swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Harry swam on past the rock, following the mersong.

"... _your time's half gone, so tarry not_

 _Lest what you seek stays here to rot..._ "

A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Harry saw faces... faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom...

The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.

Harry sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, and pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner and a very strange sight met his eyes.

A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.

Ron was tied between Hermione and Draco. Harry felt a pant of shock as he realized where all his friends had gone the night before. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Harry feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.

Harry sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at him, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. For a fleeting second he thought of the knife Sirius had bought him for Christmas, but Harry figured a silent spell would work underwater as well as it did above.

Slashing his wand at the ropes tying Ron to the stone, Harry poured his will into the single thought, ' _Diffindo!_ ' the woven weeds snapped, fraying away as Ron started to float upward slightly, and drifted a little in the ebb of the water.

Harry looked around. There was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up? He turned back to Hermione, raised his wand, and started to concentrate…

At once, several pairs of strong gray hands seized him. Half a dozen mermen were pulling him away from Hermione, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing.

" _You take your own hostage_ ," one of them said to him. " _Leave the others..._ "

"No way!" said Harry furiously, but only two large bubbles came out.

" _Your task is to retrieve your own friend... leave the others..._ "

"They're my friends too!" Harry yelled, gesturing toward Hermione and Draco, an enormous silver bubble emerging soundlessly from his lips. "And I don't want them to die either!"

Harry struggled to fight off the mermen, but they laughed harder than ever, holding him back. Harry looked wildly around. Where were the other champions? Would he have time to take Ron to the surface and come back down for Hermione and the others? Would he be able to find them again? He looked down at his watch to see how much time was left; it was nearly fifteen minutes to the hour.

The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Harry turned and saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them: it looked like a massive silver-blue eel with a dragon's head; a sea serpent. The beast darted forward, zigzagging between the merpeople and spiraled around Harry and the hostages. If Harry had to guess, the serpent was nearly as long as the basilisk he had killed two year previous.

As the enormous head passed Harry, he could see the large blue eye focus on him for a moment, then Faykan's voice sounded in his head, " _Got lost, Hurry up Harry, Fleur and Krum're coming now!_ "

The serpent then moved its massive head and tore the ropes binding Draco, dragging him by the remaining ropes like a tether as the serpent rose upward quickly, propelled by its massive tail.

Harry felt rather relieved, and awed at the power his best friend possessed. He looked around, waiting. Where were Fleur and Krum? Time was getting short, and according to the song, the hostages would be lost after an hour. The merpeople started pointing excitedly over Harry's head. Harry looked up and saw a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark cutting its way toward the hostages… it was Krum. He appeared to have tried to transfigure himself like Faykan, but badly.

The shark-man swam straight to Hermione and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Krum's new teeth were positioned very awkwardly for biting anything smaller than a dolphin, and Harry was quite sure that if Krum wasn't careful, he was going to rip Hermione in half. Darting forward, Harry hit Krum hard on the shoulder and held up a jagged stone he had scooped up from the lakebed. Krum seized it and began to cut Hermione free. Within seconds, he had done it; he grabbed Hermione around the waist, and without a backward glance, began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface.

Now what? Harry thought desperately. If he could be sure that Fleur was coming... But still no sign. There was nothing to be done except...

He snatched up the stone, which Krum had dropped, but the mermen now closed in around Ron and the little girl, shaking their heads at him. Harry pulled out his wand.

"Get out of the way!"

Only bubbles flew out of his mouth, but he had the distinct impression that the mermen had understood him, because they suddenly stopped laughing. Their yellowish eyes were fixed upon Harry's wand, and they looked scared. There might be a lot more of them than there were of him, but Harry could tell, by the looks on their faces, that they knew no more magic than the giant squid did. "You've got until three!" Harry shouted; a great stream of bubbles burst from him, but he held up three fingers to make sure they got the message. "One..." (he put down a finger) "two..." (he put down a second one)…

They scattered. Harry slashed his wand and severed the ropes binding the small girl to the statue. He seized the little girl around the waist, grabbed the neck of Ron's robes, and kicked off from the bottom. It was very slow work. He could no longer use his webbed hands to propel himself forward; he worked his flippers furiously, but Ron and Fleur's sister were like potato-filled sacks dragging him back down... He fixed his eyes skyward, though he knew he must still be very deep, the water above him was so dark...

Merpeople were rising with him. He could see them swirling around him with ease, watching him struggle through the water... Would they pull him back down to the depths when the time was up? Did they perhaps eat humans? Harry's legs were seizing up with the effort to keep swimming; his shoulders were aching horribly with the effort of dragging Ron and the girl...

He was drawing breath with extreme difficulty. He could feel pain on the sides of his neck again... he was becoming very aware of how wet the water was in his mouth... yet the darkness was definitely thinning now... he could see daylight above him...

He kicked hard with his flippers and discovered that they were nothing more than feet... water was flooding through his mouth into his lungs... he was starting to feel dizzy, but he knew light and air were only ten feet above him... he had to get there... he had to...

Harry kicked his legs so hard and fast it felt as though his muscles were screaming in protest; his very brain felt waterlogged, he couldn't breathe, he needed oxygen, he had to keep going, he could not stop…

And then he felt his head break the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting; he gulped it down, feeling as though he had never breathed properly before, and, panting, pulled Ron and the little girl up with him.

All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him.

The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet; Harry had the impression they thought that Ron and the little girl might be dead, but they were wrong... both of them had opened their eyes; the girl looked scared and confused, but Ron merely expelled a great spout of water, blinked in the bright light, turned to Harry, and said, "What? Where am I?" Then he spotted Fleur's sister. "Who's she?"

"Fleur's sister. I couldn't leave her behind," Harry panted.

"Bloody hell Harry, you're a prat," said Ron, "you didn't take that song thing seriously, did you?"

"The song said…"

"It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!" said Ron. "I hope you didn't waste time down there acting the hero!"

Harry felt both stupid and annoyed. It was all very well for Ron; he'd been asleep, he hadn't felt how eerie it was down in the lake, surrounded by spear-carrying merpeople who'd looked more than capable of murder.

"C'mon," Harry said shortly, "help me with her, I don't think she can swim very well."

They pulled Fleur's sister through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs.

Harry could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Faykan, and Draco, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets.

Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at Harry and Ron from the bank as they swam nearer, but Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"

"She's fine!" Harry tried to tell her, but he was so exhausted he could hardly talk, let alone shout.

Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank ("Gerroff, Percy, I'm all right!"); Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Harry upright; Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.

"It was ze grindylows... zey attacked me... oh Gabrielle, I thought... I thought..."

"Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Harry and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, wrapped him so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he were in a straitjacket, then forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat, causing steam gushed out of his ears.

"Harry, what the hell!" Faykan said. Harry was shocked to see his friend was finally speaking to him again, but confused as to why he was upset. "Why on earth did you stay down there so long?"

"Well…" said Harry. He was rather embarrassed about taking the song literally, but he noticed Karkaroff watching him. He was the only judge who had not left the table; the only judge not showing signs of pleasure and relief that Harry, Ron, and Fleur's sister had got back safely. "Yeah, well, you know…" said Harry vaguely, raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him.

"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny," said Krum. Harry had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said, "You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry... Did it take you ages to find us?"

"No... I found you okay..."

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Albus stood after talking with the Merchieftainess about why they had not attacked Undol on sigh like he had asked them to. Apparently the boy had used powerful transfiguration to become the merfolks' greatest fear, a sea serpent. The boy was resourceful indeed, but Albus was certain that if the Third Task did not break the boy, his fallback plan would. He turned to the other judges and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think." He would not have Harry come in last just because he took the song seriously.

Surprisingly it took very little to convince all the judges, except for Karkaroff, that Harry deserved nearly as many points as Faykan for his act of 'heroism'. Madam Maxime was opposed to the idea at first as well, but Albus won her over by saying that even though her champion had failed they would give her half the total points she could have won, instead of zero.

Ludo Bagman finally nodded and magnified his voice, booming it out so that the crowds in the stands could hear.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows...

"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."

Applause from the stands.

"I deserved zero," said Fleur throatily, shaking her head.

"Faykan Undol, who used an impressive display of self Transfiguration, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour. We therefore award him forty-seven points."

The crowd cheered again.

"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."

Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.

"Harry Potter used Gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."

"Most of the judges," Bagman looked pointedly at Karkaroff at this point, causing Albus to smile slightly, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However… Mr. Potter's score is fort-five points."

"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus had patiently waited for just the right moment to punish Theodore Nott for assaulting Undol. And he had finally found the perfect opportunity, a few weeks after the Second Task. He had seen Nott and the Parkinson girl tormenting Potter and Granger with Skeeter slates toe rag of a paper. As the four Gryffindors talked amongst themselves, they left the article forgotten on a seat beside them. Severus carefully levitated it back over to the Slytherin side of the classroom, between Nott and Pansy Parkinson.

And then, he waited. Nott could never resist the urge to taunt the Gryffindors in his class, mainly because he thought himself immune to Severus' wrath. He was about to learn differently.

It happened as Severus was inspecting Potter and Undol's potion. He sneered over at the pair of Gryffindor boys and loudly made a derisive comment about the article.

"Nott!" Severus yelled, causing the boy to jump, startled. "As much as you find Miss Granger and Mr. Potter's social life fascinating, I must ask you to refrain from discussing it in my class. Ten points from Slytherin."

The entire class was shocked into silence. Nott gaped, open mouthed, but Severus wasn't done there. Stalking over to the boy's caldron, he pointedly looked at the empty chair on which rested the copy of ' _Witch Weekly_ '. "Ah… and reading magazines under the table as well are we Nott? A further ten points from Slytherin. I am disappointed in your terrible representation of our house Mr. Nott, stay after class." He said, snatching up the magazine and stalking away, noticing the excited whispers and giggles of the Gryffindor students, "Everyone get back to your brewing," he said firmly, and there was a mad scramble to obey.

Severus smiled wickedly; he was only getting started with Mr. Nott's punishment. The lesson's end could not come swiftly enough. As the class filed out, Severus fixed his black eyes on Nott. The boy was shifting nervously in his seat, unsure how to fathom the situation.

Striding menacingly over to the Nott, Severus leaned over so that he was face to face with him. "How dare you," he hissed softly, and Nott furrowed his brow in confusion. "Don't think I don't know what you were up to during the Yule Ball Mr. Nott…" Severus continued, relishing every second of fear in the horrid child's face.

"Did you honestly think you could get away with beating and cursing another student Nott…? I would have thought you smarter than that."

Severus stood again, glaring down at the boy, "barring any punishment from the Headmaster, Slytherin house will lose another two hundred points for your actions, and you will have detention with Filch for the rest of the year. Now get out of my sight…"

Nott glared back at Severus, but fled without comment.

 _~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Sirius walked carefully down toward Hogsmeade Saturday afternoon for his meeting with Harry. He had sent them a letter the previous day with the owl that had brought the Hogsmeade weekend dates to him, telling Harry and his friends to wait for him at the stile past Dervish and Banges at two. He had also said to bring food, he was getting rather sick of rats, although Buckbeak still seemed to be enjoying them.

When he reached the designated place, he sat down, tail wagging in anticipation for the arrival of his godson. He didn't have to wait long. Harry turned the corner leading into the village with Hermione, Ron, Faykan, and a blond boy that Sirius didn't recognize.

"Hello, Sirius," Harry said happily when they had reached him.

Sirius trotted to them and sniffed Harry a few times, just for fun, then inspected the other boy, sniffing around his legs then looking at Harry for confirmation of his trust.

"It's alright Sirius," Faykan said, "Draco has our full confidence." Sirius barked once, then began to lead them all back to the cave he was hiding out in with Buckbeak.

After the last of them had squeezed inside and bowed to Buckbeak, Sirius turned back into his human form. They all smiled up at him, and the blond boy stepped forward to shake Sirius' hand. "Hello cousin Sirius," he said, grinning.

"Um, are we related?" Sirius asked, hoping against hope.

"Yes, I'm Draco Malfoy, son of your cousin Narcissa."

"You're Cissy's boy." Sirius said happily. He had heard from Faykan the year previous of how he and Harry were friends with his cousin's son. Ignoring the offered hand, he embraced the boy, lifting him off the ground and spinning him around once. Draco gave an indignant little squeak of surprise which made Sirius only squeeze him tighter.

"Ooh its good to finally meet someone else who isn't insane in this family besides your mother and me." Sirius said, finally letting Draco down and giving him room to breath, swooping down on Harry next. He could tell that everyone was looking at how thin and dirty he looked.

"I smell chicken," he said after releasing Harry. Harry pulled open his bag and handed over the bundle of chicken legs and bread.

"Thanks," said Sirius, opening it, grabbing a drumstick, sitting down on the cave floor, and tearing off a large chunk with his teeth. "I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself."

He grinned up at Harry, but Harry returned the grin rather reluctantly.

"What're you doing here, Sirius?" he said.

"Fulfilling my duty as godfather," said Sirius, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very doglike way. "Don't worry about it; I'm pretending to be a lovable stray."

He was still grinning, but seeing the anxiety in Harry's face, said more seriously, "I want to be on the spot. Your last letters... well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried."

He nodded at the yellowing Daily Prophets on the cave floor, and Ron picked them up and unfolded them. Harry, however, continued to stare at Sirius.

"What if they catch you? What if you're seen?"

"You five and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus," said Sirius, shrugging, and continuing to devour the chicken leg.

They talked about everything that had been happened since the previous summer, starting with the World Cup. Sirius told them about how strange it was for Barty Crouch to be missing out on so many important events. They talked until half past three, when Sirius insisted that start heading back to the castle.

"Now listen . . ." He looked particularly hard at Harry. "I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission; it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."

"No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of grindylows," Harry said, but Sirius scowled at him.

"I don't care... I'll breathe freely again when this tournament's over, and that's not until June. And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?"

As they started to leave the cave, Sirius grabbed Faykan's arm to stop him, "A word please…"

They waited for the others to go outside then Sirius faced Faykan with a stern look, "I heard from Harry somewhat of what occurred between the Yule Ball and the second task." Faykan flushed and looked down.

"Don't," Sirius said, tilting the boy's head back up. "Harry also said he decided that he wanted to be your friend above anything else. So stop avoiding him okay? He really cares about you, and it hurts him to not be able to talk to you." Faykan nodded, still blushing, and Sirius shoved him gently to the cave entrance and changed into Padfoot to go scrounge another newspaper for himself.

 **Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!**

 _Anyone else that uploads here regularly notice that the system to write in more content has been acting weird for some time now? for some reason the text doesn't wrap correctly when I reach the end of the page width, but keeps going as though im in Notepad... its very annoying... But anyway, primarily canon regarding what happens under the lake, which makes sense because how would any influence above water have actually affected the merpeople, and even moreso the grinylows hiding to attack the unwary. If anything, I strive to keep my changes as realistic and natural as possible... probably from an intense distaste for stories that have random and unrealistic changes to the story for absolutely no reason except that the author just felt like it (not that im completely innocent of that, but theres a clear limit to how much I can stand) Has anyone else experienced something like that, where your reading a fic, and just wondering how or why the author could possibly expect events to happen that way, with zero explanation as to why? maybe its just me and being anal about consistency, but that's my thoughts on the matter... Until next time everyone! ~F_


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